Vespertine
by Cynchick
Summary: Two enemies strike a bargain to save what they both hold dear. He will reveal a truth that shakes her beliefs, drawing her into a web of lies and betrayal. She will offer the redemption for which he never hoped and show him how to be human again. ItaSaku.
1. The Meeting

**Vespertine**

Chapter One: The Meeting

* * *

_Is there another side?_

_Beyond the black and white_

_A place I could meet you by?_

* * *

Winter came early to the northern reaches of Lightning country. Though it was only late autumn, any unfortunate traveler forced to endure those frigid temperatures and biting winds would believe they had surely been transported into the depths of winter. Haruno Sakura was one of those unfortunate travelers, and right now she was cursing her luck—and her shishou—for sticking her with a mission to such a remote, desolate backwater.

Well, perhaps she was overreacting just a little, and maybe living in Fire country had spoiled her. It wasn't even snowing yet, and if Sakura were forced to be honest about it, she would have to admit it was actually a beautiful and untouched country, full of wild, rolling moors, mist-shrouded forests, and glassy lakes that reflected tall, verdant mountains. Though she figured she'd seen enough of it on her thirty-mile trek through open country to last a lifetime.

A sharp wind rose to meet her as she crested a small hill, forcing her to squint against the assault as she spotted a town at the far edge of the rough, rolling downslope. The crossroads a few miles back had pointed her in this direction, but she pulled her map and compass from her jacket pocket just to make sure. Settlements were scattered far apartout here and she didn't want to waste hours by going the wrong way.

After a successful mission exchanging practices and information with the head medic of Hidden Cloud, Sakura had come to the northwestern edge of Lightning country on one final task for the Hokage before heading home: Konoha was in short supply of several medicinal herbs which grew only in cold, high elevations, and she just so happened to be going to one. Sakura had hoped she might findthem in Kumo and be spared the extra trip, but no such luck. Tsunade had marked her map with the locations of three towns that should have the herbs in stock, and Sakura had chosen the largest on the assumption it would be the best target for acquiring what she needed.

A strong blast of wind nearly ripped the map from her hands before she hastily folded it and stuffed it into her jacket pocket along with the compass. Another gust set her teeth rattling, and she pulled her fuzzy green bobble hat lower over her ears and wrapped the matching scarf tighter around the lower half of her face before trudging the last few miles into town.

The village of Moyama was nestled within the misty, forested foothills of an expansive mountain range. With one glance, Sakura could tell this was a rugged, practical sort of village with few modern conveniences or amenities. The buildings were all of stone, with steeply pitched roofs meant to hold up under heavy snow, multiple chimneys sprouting from each—a rare sight to someone from a temperate country. The lack of power lines here and in the countryside told her that the entire town ran its electricity from generators.

Just inside the gates, she stopped before the watchman and asked where she could find the clinic. He sucked on his pipe and stared at her curiously for a long moment before finally pointing her in the right direction and returning to his newspaper, which she noticed was a week old. Sakura figured they probably didn't get many visitors all the way out here. They seemed pretty removed from society altogether.

It turned out she needn't have asked for directions, as there were only two streets that weren't residential, and they intersected at the middle to form a town square. She had been right about it being a no-frills place; there was nothing in the way of entertainment except for a pub inside the inn. They didn't even have a library, which was nearly criminal in her opinion. Not that she was planning to stay and enjoy herself, but still. How boring.

She spotted the clinic across the street and hurried over, eager to get out of the cold, but was forced to halt as an ox-drawn wagon passed in front of her. The driver eyed her strangely, his heavy gaze fixed on her until he'd passed by and was forced to turn his head. Sakura frowned at his back and wondered if there was something odd about her appearance. After performing a quick once-over of herself she continued across the street. A tiny bell tinkled overhead as she entered the clinic, and for the first few seconds she just stood there soaking in the heat, her wind-reddened cheeks tingling as they warmed.

A stout, middle-aged woman with graying brown hair came out from the back and smiled at her. She had a cheerful look, with round cheeks and warm, crinkly blue eyes. "May I help you?"

Sakura unwound the scarf from around her face and approached the reception desk. "Yes, I need to speak with the head doctor please."

"That would be me," she said. "My name is Junko. That's an interesting accent you have. We don't get strangers out this way often."

There it was again. As she spoke, the woman studied her with a shrewd look that bordered on suspicion. Sakura couldn't guess why she would elicit such a reaction from the townsfolk. Maybe they just weren't partial to outsiders.

"I'm from Hidden Leaf, in Fire country," she explained, watching Junko's eyes widen at the name and what it implied. "My name is Sakura. I'm the apprentice of the Hokage, Tsunade."

Junko's surprise turned to excitement. "Lady Tsunade? Oh, I haven't seen her in years! How is she?"

"She's well," Sakura said amiably. It never ceased to amaze her how many people her shishou knew from her travels. Her renown seemed to spread to every corner of the world.

"That's good to hear. And you say she's the Hokage now? Well, it's only fitting, I suppose. Such a strong woman, and I've never met a better healer in all my years. You said you're her apprentice?" Sakura nodded, and Junko smiled. "Then you must be very talented."

Sakura returned her smile proudly. "I'm here to find some medicinal herbs that only grow in this region. I have a list here…" She slipped her pack from her shoulder and rifled around in the front pouch until she found it, and handed it over.

The older woman read the short list and nodded. "You've come to the right place. Most of these are found in spring, so our stock is a little low this late in the year, but in a place this small we don't often find much use for them so I think I can give you a good supply of each. I'll just run to the back and get these for you." She headed toward the back room with the list in hand, but stopped suddenly and turned again. "Oh! Where are my manners, you must be tired after traveling all this way, not to mention freezing. Have a seat, dear. Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, please." She nodded gratefully and took a seat on the padded bench along the wall, glad to get off her feet. Junko returned after a couple of minutes and handed her a steaming mug.

"There, that should warm you up. Now I'll go draw up those herbs."

Sakura thanked her and cupped her hands around the warm ceramic, breathing the fragrance of chamomile with a pleasant sigh. While she waited she busied herself with looking around the reception area. The clinic was neat and clean, but very small, and probably not well funded. Smaller populations meant fewer people paying for medical services, which in turn meant no advanced equipment or pharmaceuticals. Here they would use mostly holistic methods to treat their patients.

She sensed the presences of more people in the back, most likely other nurses and possibly patients, but didn't pay much attention and eventually passed the time by paging through a year-old home décor magazine she found on a nearby table. She was halfway through when Junko returned with a small paper bag in hand. Sakura rose and met her at the desk.

"Here you go; it's all in there. You be sure to tell Lady Tsunade that she can get these herbs from us anytime she needs them. We'll even gather extra next year just for Konoha if you like."

Sakura smiled. "Thank you, I'll let her know. How much do I owe you?"

Junko wanted to give the items to her free of charge, a favor to Tsunade whom she respected greatly, but Sakura insisted on full compensation, knowing this little clinic couldn't afford to be giving their supplies away like that, even for old friends. Junko eventually relented and accepted her money, then instructed her on the best way to store and preserve the exotic herbs. When their business was concluded Sakura asked if there was anything Junko needed help with around the clinic before she left. Busy or not, places of healing could always use an extra hand.

"Oh, no, we're fine here," she declined politely, but Sakura caught the moment of clouded hesitation before she spoke. Junko then changed the subject. "Are you going to stay in town overnight? I advise you should; it gets right freezing out there on the moors after the sun goes down."

Sakura considered it. It had been cold and windy enough on the way here; she definitely didn't relish the idea of freezing to death out on the moor at night. She wasn't expected back in Konoha for a few days yet anyway. "Yeah. I think I will."

"Good. I reckon you passed the inn on your way here?" Sakura nodded, and Junko gave a small, knowing chuckle. "This town's so small it's hard to miss anything. There's a pub downstairs there, as I'm sure you're hungry. They make a great stew that'll warm your bones—"

Junko's chatter was interrupted suddenly by a small commotion from the back of the clinic. A door slammed. Feminine voices, hushed and concerned, drifted down the hall along with shuffled footsteps, and then two nurses emerged from the hallway. One of the women had her arm around the other, who was clutching her forearm to her chest like it pained her. The glance the supporting nurse shot at Junko conveyed a weighted message that the doctor seemed to understand perfectly, from the tight press of her lips. The two nurses quickly disappeared into the staff room behind the reception desk.

Sakura followed them with her eyes and then looked to Junko. "Is everything all right?"

The older woman gave a weary sigh and waved a hand dismissively. "Nothing to worry about, dear. Just having a little trouble with a particularly stubborn patient, that's all."

Sakura got the feeling that 'stubborn' was a glossed-over understatement, if the patient was lashing out. "Anything I can help with? I have some experience with unwilling patients."

Junko gave a curt laugh. "Not unless you can forcibly hold a grown man to the bed while we administer treatment."

Actually, she _could_. But she was leaving this place in the morning and if she made a resentful patient even more resentful, these women would have to deal with him afterward. She didn't want to leave them with an even harder job than before. "If he doesn't want help, why did he come here?"

Junko hesitated again, reluctant to tell an outsider about the village's problems, but after a moment she caved. "Well, maybe you _can_ help. You're a ninja, right? You must know how to deal with these kinds of people. Maybe you can tell us what we're doing wrong."

She leaned against the counter. "See…he didn't come to us. He's not from this village or anywhere around here from what we can tell. This man…he stumbled into town and collapsed in the street about three weeks ago. He just wandered in…looked like a dead man walking, if you can imagine that. He was covered in burns and knife wounds that were several days old and completely untreated. We assume he's some kind of soldier because he looked like he'd been in a terrible fight—and if he came out of it looking like _that_ I don't want to know what happened to the loser. We brought him back here and searched him but he had no weapons, no belongings or identification of any kind. He was half starved too—still is, to be honest, because he hardly touches the food we give him."

Sakura was used to men stumbling into her village and collapsing in the street. Sometimes, on an especially difficult mission, it was all a shinobi could do to make it back home alive. But the citizens of this town wouldn't be accustomed to such a thing. "You haven't been able to learn anything about him?"

She was genuinely curious, but also unable to ignore the little alarm in the back of her mind. The only military types around this area should be Cloud ninja, and they would be easily recognizable by the locals. If there were battles being fought nearby, she should learn what she could and inform the Hokage.

Junko shook her head. "Well he was unconscious for the first few days, but since he woke he hasn't uttered a single word. I'm certain he'd be out the door in a heartbeat if he weren't too weak to get out of bed." She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "I think he might be an army deserter and won't say anything so we can't turn him in, not that we would. It's none of our business. Our job is to heal." Her tone hinted at a deep disapproval for all things warlike, which probably included Sakura's chosen profession as a ninja.

"Were his injuries so bad that he's still bedridden after three weeks?"

"No, they've nearly healed, though it wasn't easy with the infections he got from leaving them untreated for who knows how long before he fell into our hands. While examining him when he was unconscious we learned that not only was he badly injured, but he's sick as well. Some sort of disease that makes him cough blood. At first I thought it was tuberculosis, but I was wrong. It's like nothing I've ever seen before in all my years of medicine. I can't tell if it's respiratory or intestinal, and he certainly won't tell me anything, but I do know this: it's been wasting him away for some time now, and there's nothing I can do for him even if he'd let me, other than ease his pain. He's dying, and from the advanced state of him I'd say he has a week, maybe two. It's a real shame; such a strong man like him surviving the fight of his life only to fall to debilitating illness." She shook her head sadly.

"I can take a look at him if you want. I can heal with chakra; maybe I can do something for him that traditional medicine can't," Sakura offered, sympathizing with Junko's impotent frustration.

Junko debated it for a moment, but finally shook her head and declined. "Thank you for offering, but I can't agree to that. He's too unstable, and frankly, he's dangerous. He frightens my nurses, and I think after what happened today neither of them will go near his room again. I'm worried about their safety and mine, to be honest, and I won't ask you to put yourself in harm's way."

Sakura held in a sigh. Apparently Junko's sweet, grandmotherly look hid a keen, no-nonsense character. She understood her reasoning, even if it didn't apply to her. She was about to argue that she could handle herself perfectly well, but Junko went on, her voice taking on a low, uneasy quality.

"He's too weak to even walk on his own…yet he's able to leave bruises on Mai's arm? There's something unnatural about him; he has a very intense, unpleasant aura the likes of which I've only felt before in the really bad types, if you know what I mean."

Sakura was almost certain now, after listening to Junko, that the difficult patient in the other room was a missing-nin. She tried to detect his chakra to confirm her suspicion, but he was either masking it or too weak to produce traceable amounts.

To most civilians, ninja were regarded with caution and suspicion. They were widely thought of as a bunch of spooks—shadowy figures of society's underbelly. Mysterious, ruthless, immoral, and capable of things that those who couldn't manipulate chakra would think defied the laws of nature. If he was distressed and angry, the pressure of his chakra would certainly be the reason these women felt so on-edge around him.

"I've met some strange and powerful people in my time, your master Tsunade being one of them," Junko continued. "But this guy is really something else. You'd never guess it by looking at him—to be perfectly honest he's really quite a handsome young man—but there's just something…_dark_ about him. My other nurse Shion said that in the first week he was here, when she tried to give him an IV he slapped her hands away and got so angry his eyes flashed red. I don't know if she saw correctly or not, but I'm not sure I want to."

Junko carried on griping about her unwelcome patient, but Sakura stopped listening as the truth of the situation dropped heavily upon her. The watchman and the wagon driver had given her a strange looks on her way in that she'd brushed off. Junko had seemed almost suspicious of her when she'd commented on her Fire country accent.

'_We don't get strangers out this way often…'_

'…_collapsed in the street about three weeks ago…'_

'… _really quite a handsome young man…'_

'…_got so angry his eyes flashed red…'_

There was only one thing Sakura knew of that would make a person's eyes flash red from an adrenaline spike. How much of a coincidence could it be that almost exactly four weeks ago, as part of a search party combing the northern edge of Fire country in, her team had found remnants of a fierce battle in an ancient Uchiha fortress?

How he managed to travel this far from the battle site with such terrible injuries, or where he was trying to get to, she had no idea. But there was one thing she was sure of.

In the room down the hall, only a few feet away from where she stood, was Uchiha Sasuke.

Years after he'd left them for power and revenge, months after her team confronted him at Orochimaru's lair with disastrous results, right now he was mere footsteps away and completely unaware of her presence.

And according to Junko, he was dying.

He hadn't looked like someone who was terminally ill when he'd come at her with a Chidori-laden sword the last time they met, but stranger things had happened. Sakura had lost all illusions about her former teammate after that incident. Now this second time around, she felt none of the unrealistic hopes of before. Still, she couldn't help feeling something…maybe not happiness, but…relief? That he was still alive, that his whereabouts and status were no longer a giant question mark. She still cared what happened to him, even after all he'd done. Part of her would always care, no matter how angry and disappointed and betrayed she felt.

The mix of emotions fought for dominance within her, but what won out over the rest and bubbled to the surface was a deep sense of sadness and regret. If what Junko said was true, if this really was the end for him, then she had only one option.

"I need to see him."

Her unfocused gaze and quiet mumble made it seem as if she were talking to herself, but Junko heard her, and looked up with a surprised frown. "I appreciate your wanting to help, really, but as I said—"

"Please," she insisted. Junko's reluctant expression only set further, and Sakura barely managed not to groan in frustration. If she appeared too eager the old woman would know something was up. She tried a different tactic. "The condition you described…I think I've read about it. I think I know what it might be. I may be able to help him." It _might_ be a lie, but then again it might not. Maybe she _would_ know. Maybe she could save him.

Right now she just needed to get into that room.

Junko regarded her skeptically, reluctant to give in. But as a healer, she wouldn't be able to refuse trying every option to save her patient, and Sakura knew this. Finally, the doctor sighed and relented. "All right. I hope you _can_ do something." She removed her stethoscope from around her neck and handed it to Sakura. "It's the last door on the right, but don't say I didn't warn you."

"I'll be careful," Sakura promised absently, donning the stethoscope. It was all she could do not to make a mad dash for the hallway.

But about halfway down the hall, her steps unconsciously slowed in foreboding. What if he freaked out when he saw her and hurt himself somehow? What if he was so far gone in his illness that… _No_. She shook her head roughly, angry with herself for thinking such things. None of the what-ifs mattered. It was Sasuke. She _had_ to, if for nothing else than to gain closure and say goodbye.

It seemed strange that it could end like this, here in this tiny clinic in the middle of nowhere. It seemed wrong. Sasuke was supposed to come back to them, to Konoha, whether through an epiphany or common sense or Naruto's uncanny powers of friendship. In the darkest corner of her mind, the part of her that grew more hopeless with every passing year since he defected had even imagined that he and Naruto would fight another epic battle and that Naruto would either bring him home by force, or that Sasuke—gods forbid Naruto, too—would be killed.

But this just seemed too…_insignificant_…for their history. Naruto wasn't even here. If she was able to contact him, would he be able to make it in time? He would never forgive himself if he lost the chance…

Well then she would just have to find a way to save him.

Her hand was trembling as she reached for the door handle. Sakura paused, took a deep breath to steady her nerves and prepare herself for what she might find, and then quietly opened the door and stepped inside.

The bed stood along the far wall, away from the window—probably with reason, given the patient's obvious desire to be anywhere but here. This left him almost completely immersed in late-afternoon shadow, but Sakura could see that he was propped upright with his back against the headboard, and though his face was turned away, a spike of recognition and familiarity swept through her. His body language, the way he sat just slightly slumped in that brooding manner. His pale skin. His inky black hair, though it was longer than last time. And she could tell even from this distance that he was as thin and frail as Junko had stated.

Her heart thudded heavily in her chest, cutting off any words she might have spoken, even if she knew what to say. He knew someone was there, and the silence was filled with the weight of his irritation. The seconds ticked by, and when she still hadn't moved and still couldn't say a word, he turned his head and glared at her.

Sakura's heart skipped a beat. She blinked once, then again, trying to focus through the shadowy room. She could have hit the lights but she was rooted to the spot, her limbs filled with a cold, sinking sensation. Her heart was beating so hard it hammered in her ears.

It had been several months since she'd last seen him, and then only for a few intense, adrenaline-filled minutes. And sure, a debilitating sickness would most definitely have a drastic effect on his appearance. But no amount of compensation for time or illness could convince her that this man was Sasuke.

With devastating certainty, Sakura realized that the man staring back at her was Uchiha Itachi.

* * *

Next chapter: _The Bargain_


	2. The Bargain

**Vespertine**

Chapter Two: The Bargain

* * *

_The devil beside you_

_To watch you die when you can't find a remedy_

_So nice to meet you, _

_Hope I never see your face again_

* * *

Sakura was stunned. In her mind she had been so certain she would find Sasuke here, but instead she'd been completely blindsided by something else. Something a hundred times worse.

Tense, heavy seconds ticked by as she stared. Uchiha Itachi looked every bit the ghost he was supposed to be, but that didn't keep her from remembering everything he was, and everything he was not. As the shock gradually faded, her numbness was replaced by fear…and anger.

Here was the monster responsible for so many wrongs, so many terrible things. An enemy by affiliation…whom she also hated for personal reasons close to her heart. He was a member of Akatsuki: the criminal organization that wanted to suck the soul out of her best friend. Here lay the agent assigned to Naruto's capture. Here lay Sasuke's ruthless tormentor, the person whose actions drove her teammate to turn his back on everything good in his life. Uchiha Itachi: traitor, terrorist, and mass-murderer.

The frail, bedridden man across from her seemed nothing at all like Konoha's most-wanted missing-nin, now faded and almost unrecognizable as the infamous villain her team encountered a year ago in Wind country. That hadn't even been his full presence—only a high-level clone—yet she remembered clearly how it felt to be close to such a powerful, lethal enemy. The intense, malevolent energy was gone now, quashed and replaced by the unmistakable aura of a dying man.

He was hardly a threat to her in this state, though that knowledge didn't completely erase her ingrained fear of him.

That fear was amplified by rising alarm over the potential implication of his living status. Was Itachi the victor of the battle that destroyed the ancient fortress? Did that mean Sasuke was dead? The strange Akatsuki in the orange mask and the even stranger one who looked like a flytrap had said that Sasuke killed his brother; the plant man spoke as an eyewitness. Obviously, he'd been wrong about Itachi's death …was he also wrong about Sasuke?

Suddenly she felt an overwhelming urge to shake this bastard clan-killer until his bones rattled and demand answers to all of her questions. But she already knew he wouldn't tell her anything unless it was to spin one of the mindgames for which he was so well known.

"Who are you."

It wasn't the flat, disinterested inflection or the hoarse rasp of his long-unused voice that threw her, but the question itself.

Didn't he recognize her? They had only technically met once, but Uchiha Itachi was an exceptional shinobi, and however insignificant he may have thought her at the time, he wouldn't overlook an opponent or forget their face.

It took her a second to realize she was still wearing her hat and that her bright, coral-pink hair was hidden. At the same time she also noticed that his stare was just slightly unfocused, as if he couldn't quite see her clearly. She was standing in partial shadow, but she had a feeling that wasn't the issue. Kakashi had called him out on his deteriorating vision when they last fought, eliciting the only discernible emotional reaction she had seen from him in that encounter, as if a terrible secret had been exposed. Apparently failing eyesight wasn't the only medical secret Itachi had been hiding.

He was waiting for her answer, so she quickly thought of one that played upon his failure to recognize her. "I'm a doctor—a specialist. Junko-san has asked me to see what I can do for you," she lied evenly, using her gentlest tone. She had to keep him off his guard for as long as possible.

Itachi continued to glare at her, displaying no outward sign of belief or otherwise. Finally he looked away and turned partially to the wall, subtly dismissing her. "There is nothing you can do."

Sakura didn't like to be told she couldn't do something, no matter who said it, and frowned at the back of his head. "You may be surprised."

Her steps were cautious, placid and unthreatening. She couldn't let her nerves show, had to keep her chakra tightly locked down and undetectable. This was Uchiha Itachi, and however weak and unarmed, it would be incredibly foolish to assume he was defenseless. If he discovered her deception, things could get very ugly, very fast.

In the few feet of distance between the door and the bed, her mind raced to formulate a plan. What was she going to do? What would she be _expected_ to do? Should she make an excuse to get out of here and send a message to Konoha? Should she try to subdue and capture him, take him back with her? In his current state it wouldn't be too hard. Should she try to subtly get information out of him? Should she just kill him right here and now? None of those answers felt like the right one. Truthfully she had no idea, and so as potentially dangerous as it might be, she decided she would just run with it.

Only when she reached his side did Itachi turn, though she knew he had been aware of her every movement. It was the first time she had ever seen his eyes without the Sharingan, but they still pierced her with a deep intensity. Sakura experienced another rush of nerves. What now? She'd said she was there to treat him…that was a good place to start.

Reluctant as she was to stand near him or touch him, she was truly curious about what sort of condition could bring the great Uchiha Itachi to the brink of death.

"I know you've been refusing treatment because you think it's pointless," she began slowly, calmly. Normally she preferred the same no-nonsense approach her mentor practiced, but this situation required more delicacy than the average chuunin with a broken bone from too-rough sparring. "But I'm more skilled than those nurses and I may be able to help you. Will you allow me to examine you?"

Itachi ignored her, stared straight ahead as if she wasn't there. Only the slight clench of his jaw proved that he'd heard—and was averse to—her proposal.

Apparently the gentle approach wasn't going to work with him.

Sakura sighed impatiently and crossed her arms over her chest. "What's the harm?" she demanded coolly. "Unless you _want_ to die…"

His eyes snapped to hers unpleasantly. She willed herself to hold his gaze with what she hoped was equal intensity. Finally, his jaw unclenched and he exhaled a slow sigh through his nose.

"Fine."

Sakura gave the barest smile at her small, shallow victory before a professional veneer slipped over her features and she placed the stethoscope in her ears. When her hands came into contact with him, he tensed. It was no surprise that he was uncomfortable being touched. "This will feel a little cold," she warned quietly, and slid the metal disc under the loose edge of his shirt, moving it to rest over his back. "Deep breath, please." He did, and the sound of his respiration was muted by fluid. Sounded like pneumonia, though it wasn't mucus, but blood filling his lungs.

Sakura wished she could use medical jutsu to probe more extensively, but not if it meant she would end up with a broken neck. She could feel his eyes watching every millimeter of her movements like a bird of prey, waiting. She removed the disc from under his shirt, shifted around him and said, "Lift the front of your shirt."

What had once been an impressive physique had deteriorated with illness, leaving only traces of its former perfection. Her eyes passed quickly over his pale torso, noting nothing of medical interest other than his emaciated state: the slight protrusion of ribs, the sharpness of a breastbone once defined by muscle. She pressed the stethoscope over his heart and had him repeat the breathing sets. His strong, steady heartbeat was a sharp contrast to the frail rattling of his lungs. He'd been at the peak of fitness when illness struck, and that vigor had helped him survive this long. But that reserve of strength had nearly run out.

Sakura slipped the stethoscope from her ears and let it rest around her neck. With gentle firmness she began pressing different places on his abdomen, feeling for any swelling or hard spots. Things were so much easier with chakra! Without it, she would be forced to ask him a series of medical questions that would certainly be uncomfortable for them both, such as his ability to keep food down, whether there was blood in his urine or stool…. After that she would need to take a blood test—

In the blink of an eye, Sakura was flipped onto her back and pinned to the bed, immobilized by shock and Itachi's painful grip on her wrists as he knelt over her. It took only a second to recover, but she didn't know what set him off and so forced herself to remain still and play the part of bewildered and frightened civilian.

"_Kunoichi!_" he hissed dangerously. His eyes spun red with the Sharingan.

_Shit!_ Sakura had no idea how, but she'd been made. Abandoning her charade, she channeled chakra to her hands and twisted her wrists out against his thumbs, forcibly breaking his hold. She drove her knee into his hip, frantically wriggled from beneath him and crouched back at the foot of the bed.

They faced off intently at opposite sides of the small bed, coiled and tense like vipers waiting to strike at the slightest threatening movement. They were only a few feet apart; if they both reached out they would touch. Sakura was armed beneath her coat and Itachi wasn't, and she could discern just how weak he really was from how easily she'd gotten away from him, though he was still remarkably fast. She could take him if she had to. But what she wanted most was not a dead Uchiha, but answers.

Itachi's breathing was labored; the short struggle had taxed him. She avoided his eyes—rule number one when facing an Uchiha—and watched his lips instead, parting as his breaths came shorter and harder. He tried to hold it in, but he was overcome by a violent coughing fit and doubled over, shaking and sputtering, clutching his chest with one hand, the other holding the sheets in a white-knuckled grip. A thick gurgle of dark, sticky blood erupted from his lips and stained the white fabric.

That was her chance, to escape, or to kill. Though as she watched him suffer such humbling misery, Sakura couldn't help but feel sorry for him. If he hadn't attacked her moments ago, she would have been tempted to reach for him. Itachi noticed, saw it in her face when he glanced up to see why she hadn't made a move. He glared at her, watery eyes filled with venom, resentful of her pity, and wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand.

Her expression shifted to one of calm exasperation. "Relax. I'm not here to kill you." _Yet_. Slowly, she reached up, pulled her hat off, and ran her fingers through the flattened pink strands.

Itachi blinked in visible surprise, eyes narrowing a fraction as he studied the details of her face. A long moment passed, silent and tense, until he placed her in his memory. "Sakura…" he murmured. "Haruno Sakura. Why are you here."

Like she was about to tell him. "Why are _you_ here?" His response was a flat, even stare. Sakura sighed. "I was just passing through. I'm a medic. This is a clinic. I had no idea you were even alive, Itachi. I'd been told the opposite, actually." She paused, gave him a sardonic smile. "Just a lucky coincidence."

Heavy silence pressed down upon them as they regarded each other. _Now what_, she wondered. Where did they go from here? He didn't kill her when he had the chance, nor did she kill him when she could have. He didn't seem to want to kill her now, either. So what was she going to do about him? It was admittedly difficult to see him like this, deathly pale, smeared with his own blood. The medic in her wanted to do something for him, but his identity stayed her hand.

"Why did you pretend to aid me, if not to get under my guard?" he asked, still eyeing her as a cornered animal might. The voice she remembered as rich and smooth was now raspy and weak, hoarse from the rawness of his throat and the fact that he hadn't spoken in weeks.

"I didn't pretend," she said. "I wanted to know what's wrong with you. Junko told me all about you—what little she knows. I came in here because I thought…" She trailed off, not sure she wanted to give that much away.

Silence stretched again. Sakura relaxed onto her knees and stared at her hands, torn about what to do. Perhaps Konoha didn't need to know, if he was dying anyway. Maybe she should just leave quietly and let him live out the last of his days in peace. He didn't deserve it, but… Eventually she looked up, dared to meet his lethal crimson stare. "I'm…I'm sorry it ends like this for you."

Itachi blinked slowly, perplexed. "Why."

Sakura took a deep breath. "Because it's not fitting."

The barest hint of an ironic smile crossed his expression. "This wasn't the outcome I expected either."

This time the quiet was more awkward than tense. It was hard to believe she was sitting here like this with one of the most dangerous men in the five nations. The moment was surreal, out of place in time and the events of the world. She felt that perhaps it should stay that way.

Finally, Sakura stood. She twisted her fuzzy hat in her hands and stared at a tiny fleck of drying blood on the linoleum. "I'm not going to report this, so uh…you can stay here until…" She took another steadying breath, troubled by things she couldn't identify. "Goodbye," she exhaled in a rush.

She turned for the door, but Itachi caught her wrist. It hurt a little, and she belatedly realized he must have bruised her in the struggle. _Still so strong_. Surprised, she turned back quickly. His eyes had gone dark again, but still bored into her in a way that left her feeling very exposed.

"You're looking for my brother." It wasn't a question.

Sakura didn't reply, but her guard rose warily and she tried to pull her arm from his grasp. His grip tightened. There was blood on his hand; it smudged onto her skin.

"You came in here because you thought I was him," he pressed.

Reluctantly, she nodded. "Yes. His whereabouts are unknown since your battle."

"Unknown to you. To Konoha."

"What…?"

"Finish your examination. Diagnose me. That's all I ask." His stare became even more penetrating. "If you do that I will tell you where he is."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "What have you done with him?" she hissed.

No answer, just that heavy, exposing gaze. After a moment he released her wrist and sat back. "The decision is yours."

There was really no decision to make. If all he wanted was a diagnosis in exchange for such crucial information…

"Alright then." She set her hat on the bedside table and unbuttoned her coat. His eyes immediately darted to the brace of kunai strapped to her hip. Her lips tightened. "You're not going to tackle me again are you?" After a moment of waiting, she knew she wasn't going to get an answer. Sakura sighed and sat at the edge of the bed. He moved to allow her room, stretching out as he'd been when she'd entered.

Itachi remained silent and passive as she continued her examination, this time with chakra. Placing one hand on his chest and the other on his back, she sent gently glowing pulses of her own energy into his body. He didn't watch her every move this time, but the tension in his lean frame told her his guard hadn't lowered any. Neither had hers.

It went more quickly with medical jutsu. There would be no need for blood tests, x-rays, or extensive questioning; she learned all she needed to know through direct contact with his internal systems. Within a few minutes her chakra output ceased, the pale green glow fading from her hands as she sat back.

Itachi noticed her frown, but his own expression remained impassive. Unlike what most patients would have done, he didn't press her for answers, just waited calmly—_too_ calmly—for confirmation of life or death.

Honestly, Sakura didn't have an answer yet. It was as Junko said: internal hemorrhaging in the lungs, and to a lesser degree, in the stomach and intestine. Only the cause was something she'd never seen before: a multitude of tiny vascular lesions that leaked blood into his organs. The lesions spread and grew over time, eventually deteriorating tissue and leading to organ failure. Sakura was a combat field medic and poisons specialist. Diseases weren't her area of expertise, especially not rare and complicated ones like this. But there was something about it that seemed familiar in the back of her mind. She was almost certain she'd read about something like it once.

"I'll be right back," she muttered absently, standing. Itachi said nothing, his eyes following her as she left the room. She went quickly to her pack, which she'd left on the bench in the lobby, and dug around in it until she found the scroll she was looking for.

Junko must have heard her. Peeking her head out from the staff room, she called, "Everything all right?"

"Everything's fine," Sakura assured lightly, flashing a distracted smile as she hurried back to Itachi's room.

As she crossed the room she grabbed the chair from near the window and pulled it up alongside the bed. The sun had set by now, and she had to switch on the bedside table lamp to see clearly. The soft fluorescence illuminated the area around the bed but didn't extend much further, leaving the rest of the room in near darkness.

Sakura unrolled the scroll in her lap, made a few handseals, and with a soft _poof_ and curl of vapor, a massive medical tome around eight inches thick sat on her knees.

Naruto liked to make fun of her for carrying around "the kitchen sink," as he liked to call it, and about the fact that she liked to read it in her spare time. Apparently Itachi thought it similarly unusual. He glanced from the enormous book to her face and very slightly raised an eyebrow.

"What? This thing is very useful. A fact I'm about to prove right now," she said defensively.

The comprehensive encyclopedia was so heavy she had to hold the thing with both hands to keep it from falling off her lap as she scanned the index and paged her way to the section on rare diseases. Sakura spent the next several minutes reading, the room silent except for the rustle of paper as she turned pages and the occasional raspy breath from Itachi, who watched her intently the entire time. Her expression perked when she found what she was looking for, and she absently chewed her lower lip as she scanned the article, a small knit appearing between her brows whenever she read something troubling.

When she finished, she closed the book carefully and gave him a wan smile. "I found it." She told him its name, a scientifically complicated mouthful, and what exactly was happening inside his body. "It's _extremely_ rare," she said, shaking her head slightly. "There's no evidence of it being hereditary, nor is it contagious. It's currently unknown how it develops, and there is no medicinal cure." Her expression hardened, and she raised an expectant brow. "Now tell me where Sasuke is."

Itachi regarded her silently for a long moment. Finally, "My brother is with Uchiha Madara."

Sakura started, eyes going wide, and had to grip the book harder to keep it from slipping. Tsunade had mentioned the possibility of the Uchiha clan founder still being alive, dark rumors whispered on the wind. "Uchiha Madara…so he is alive then," she murmured to herself. She met Itachi's dark gaze. "And Sasuke, he's…a captive?"

Irony flickered across his features. "Not in the way you mean. He is an accomplice."

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

Itachi exhaled slowly, what in others might have been a sigh. "He has been filled with lies and half-truths, manipulated by Madara's spin. I believe that Madara intends to turn my brother against Konoha and use him to destroy it."

"That's not possible," Sakura argued. "Sasuke is only a missing-nin because of _you_. He wouldn't turn against Konoha and his friends—"

"It _is_ possible, given what Madara has fed him," he interrupted. His pale lips curved in a faint, mocking smirk. "And you haven't been his friend for years."

Sakura grew angry. "I _am_ his friend, whether he wants to acknowledge it or not! Naruto too—"

"But he isn't yours."

Her mouth opened to retort, but then snapped shut, and she fixed him with a spiteful glare. She wanted to yell at him: '_You know nothing about him! You ruined him!_' But deep inside she knew he spoke the truth. Her words were hollow, mechanical defenses that were no longer completely heartfelt. But she wasn't about to admit that to someone who had no right to discuss this with her.

With a flash of handseals the book was inside the scroll again, and Sakura stood abruptly and reached for her coat. "Thank you for the information," she said stiffly.

"Thank you for your diagnosis," he returned, just the slightest bit bemused.

"Goodbye." She turned for the door.

"Sakura."

Sakura stopped but didn't turn, waited for him to continue. When he did, his words were quiet, almost reluctant.

"You said there was no medicinal cure…"

"Right." Damn him for being a genius.

"But you can heal with more than medicine. Is it…possible?"

In the oppressive silence, the weight of his fragile hope was tangible. It felt like a hole had just opened beneath her.

It could have been seconds or an hour before she was able to reply, "Yes. There is a chance." She waited, listened hard for a sigh of relief, anything. But there was nothing. "I don't know if I can cure the cause, but I could heal the existing damage and buy you some time. But…"

"But why should you," he finished.

She turned finally, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yes. Why should I."

"I can help you save him."

Sakura scoffed. "I think the last thing Sasuke wants is _your_ help."

His lips curved in that same ironic half-smirk. "Many things have changed since my brother and I last saw each other."

Her eyes narrowed. "Explain."

"In time." He studied her carefully, giving nothing away of his own feelings. "Madara is a master of manipulation. He will twist every thought in my brother's head until he believes black is white and down is up. He knows exactly what to say to drive him beyond reason."

"Kind of like you did?" Sakura challenged.

"Yes," he admitted evenly. "Only much worse. Sasuke is beyond your help. I can get through to him, but I can only do that if we meet face to face again."

"Why do you even care?" she asked incredulously. "You've spent the last ten years driving your own little brother insane, and now you want to _help_ him? And why do you give a damn what Madara plans to do to Konoha? You're a traitor who killed his entire clan!"

The room went very quiet in the wake of her outburst. Itachi seemed to withdraw into himself, becoming impassive and blank again. It was a long moment before he replied, "Things aren't always as they appear."

Sakura stared at him in muted fury and perplexity, silent only because she had a dozen questions and didn't know which to ask first. Before she could ask any of them, Itachi spoke again, though the words seemed difficult for him to say.

"You need my help, Sakura…and I need yours."

"You're asking me to betray my village!" she hissed.

He looked at her as if that made no sense. "It's not outside of Konoha's practices to collaborate with lesser criminals in order to bring down a bigger threat."

"You're hardly a _lesser_ criminal, Itachi. And it's only legal if it's sanctioned by the Hokage."

"Then tell her," he said simply.

"Even if she agreed to it, in the end…you won't get immunity."

"I have no such expectation."

"You'll be _executed_." How could he be so calm about it?

"A swift death is preferable to this." He gestured, indicating his current state.

"What reason do I have to trust anything you say?" she demanded, searching for a way out. This was the _last_ thing she'd expected to happen when she decided to enter this room. "You probably plan to kill me and run back to your freakshow friends once you're healed."

Itachi frowned at her. He was frustrated, at his wit's end, she realized. Well that made two of them. Eventually the knit between his brows faded away, leaving his features flawless, though tired, once more. "If you agree to this," he said slowly, "not only will I help you save my brother, I'll tell you everything I know. About Madara, about Akatsuki…and about myself. It is more than a fair trade."

Sakura sighed tiredly, bringing a hand to her brow. She shook her head, at a loss for words, at a loss as to what she should do.

"Sakura…"

There was an imploring edge to his soft tone that forced her to meet his gaze. His dark eyes seemed to penetrate right to the core of her.

"_Please_."

Sakura just stared at him for a long moment. "I…I have to think about it," she said finally, hating how unsteady her voice sounded. She quickly left the room. Knowing if she went back to the lobby Junko would question her, she silently slipped into the empty room next door. She didn't turn on a light, just sat at the edge of the bed and put her head in her hands.

She was more than a little shaken by Itachi's apparent desperation, by the fact that he was pleading with her. It was unfathomable. Even if she saved him for now he would likely be executed anyway, so what could be so important to him that he was willing to beg her for help when he had nothing to gain? It couldn't be for Sasuke…not when for the past decade Itachi's only purpose seemed to be driving Sasuke into an early grave.

In the other room, she heard Itachi begin to cough, a sickly and painful wracking. He must have held it in until she left the room. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and massaged her temples, imagining the blood staining his fingers as he tried to muffle the sound.

None of this made any sense!

Furthermore, she despised this man! She didn't want to help him. He didn't _deserve_ help. So then, why was she even thinking about it? Why did part of her feel sorry for him? Worse yet, part of her _wanted_ to believe him. So much of what she'd seen in the past few hours contradicted the image of Uchiha Itachi she'd always held in her mind.

Now his life was in her hands as surely as if she held a blade to his throat. He'd been resigned to death, even refused medical treatment. But now, because of her, because she could do things that no ordinary doctor in the world could, he had hope. It was a heavy burden to bear.

But this wasn't about her. Sakura was being asked to play a part in a much bigger game, one she didn't entirely understand. Itachi had promised to explain the game and give her answers—revelations for which the Hokage would pay her weight in gold. How could she turn down an opportunity like this?

She couldn't, really. Her honor as a medic and her duty as a shinobi overruled her personal feelings on the matter.

With a heavy, resigned sigh, Sakura stood and returned to Itachi's room. She shut the door silently and made her way to his bedside. Crossing her arms over her chest, in a measured voice she said, "Okay. I'll do it."

Itachi showed no sign of relief or happiness, only solemnly replied, "Thank you."

Sakura wasn't interested in his gratitude. "I can't make any guarantees," she continued stonily, "but I'll try my best. You'll at least live long enough to fulfill your end of the bargain."

He nodded once. "That's all I ask."

"This will take some time," she explained, moving to sit in the chair, keeping her arms crossed. "Weeks. Maybe even months. I'm not a machine, and if I overstrain myself too often I could end up as bedridden as you. This is a risky venture for both of us, and the chance of success would be greater in a hospital so I'll contact the Hokage and arrange for your transport to Konoha—"

"No," he cut in, a steely edge in his tone. "Akatsuki has eyes in Konoha. We cannot risk them finding out I'm alive. There is also the risk that I may not survive the journey."

He was likely right about that part; Konoha was far away, and the weather worsened daily. It was also alarming to hear that there was an Akatsuki spy in her village, though it wasn't her biggest concern at the moment. "Well we can't stay _here_," she argued. "This clinic doesn't have many resources, and besides, after the way you've treated the nurses I doubt they'd _let_ you stay for another month or two. What am I supposed to do, then?"

"Figure it out," he said calmly, as if it were as simple as deciding on a restaurant for dinner.

Sakura threw her hands up with an aggravated growl and stood. She paced the room a few times, occasionally shooting him a baleful glare. She knew what he was asking of her, and she knew the risks involved. Naruto would tell her there was no way in hell she should ever be alone with this guy, even if it meant taking out Akatsuki _and_ saving Sasuke. Tsunade would tell her to be careful, but to buck up and do her duty. Her own inner voice was telling her she was insane for even considering it.

Sakura felt as if she were standing on the edge of a cliff. The wind pushed against her back, urging her over, but she knew what awaited her if she took another step. This could turn out to be the most foolish thing she'd ever done. But the necessity was clear, the choice already made. She took a deep breath, and without looking down, she jumped.

"Fine. I'll see what I can do."

With a final infuriated glare in his direction, she turned on her heel and left the room to find Junko.

* * *

Next chapter: _The Healer and Her Patient_


	3. The Healer and Her Patient

**Vespertine**

Chapter Three: The Healer and Her Patient

* * *

_The perception that divides you from him is a lie._

_For some reason, you never asked why._

_This is not a black and white world._

* * *

It wasn't hard to convince Junko to release Itachi into her care. Sakura had a feeling they were more than glad to be rid of him.

"It turns out we know each other," she said, after explaining Itachi's illness and showing her the article in her book—over which the older doctor practically drooled. At least _someone_ appreciated the value of it. "We're from the same village." She put on a sheepish smile. "Sorry I didn't say anything before. I had a feeling when you described him, but I wanted to make sure."

"Why didn't he say anything?" Junko wondered. "We could have contacted Konoha for him."

"He was probably worried that his enemies would come to finish him off if word got out he was here," she reasoned, shrugging slightly. "I'm lucky to have found him; he's been missing for a while. Konoha's had no word of him since the battle almost a month ago." It was true enough, and the best way to lie is to incorporate as much truth as possible.

Junko accepted her explanation.. "And now you're going to take him back to Konoha."

"Actually, not yet…I'm going to heal him before we return."

"You can cure him? _How_?"

"With medical ninjutsu," she explained. "By converting my chakra into healing energy. Just like my shishou." She channeled chakra to her fingertips and held them up for view.

Junko stared wide-eyed at Sakura's glowing hand. "It amazes me every time I see it. One of these days you medical ninjas will put us normal doctors out of work."

"That's unlikely. Medic nins are uncommon; it requires a level of chakra control that most shinobi can never master." She couldn't conceal the note of pride in her voice. "Anyway, I don't plan to treat him here. Some very dangerous people might be looking for him, and we're not going to endanger you or the other nurses by remaining in the clinic."

"And what about _your_ safety?"

Sakura smiled thinly. "I can protect myself." In most cases, it was true. Against Akatsuki…she really didn't know. She just hoped they continued to believe Itachi was dead.

"You really do remind me of Lady Tsunade," Junko mused nostalgically. "Well, you're a brave girl for taking him on alone, in any case."

"I've dealt with worse patients than him, believe me. He's not so bad, just out of sorts here. Shinobi are naturally distrustful of strangers. We have to be. And we don't like to be at anyone's mercy," she explained casually. Inside she was laughing at herself for making excuses for an s-class criminal's bad behavior.

Junko gave her a long, almost pitying look. "So young, to be so experienced..."

"I'm seventeen," she said a little testily, not liking the doctor's reproving tone. "That's not so young where I'm from."

"No…I suppose it isn't. How sad."

There was judgment there, not against Sakura, but against her lifestyle. Once again, she was reminded of how the outside world saw shinobi and the hidden villages. But in her eyes Konoha was a safe haven filled with friends and loved ones, a place worth protecting. She had never once wished for another life.

"So, is there somewhere we can stay until he's well enough to travel?" she redirected, trying not to let her resentment show. "A house for rent or something?" They couldn't stay at the inn for the same reasons they couldn't remain in the clinic. Furthermore, Itachi needed to relax as much as possible to get well, so the fewer strange people around to put him on edge, the better.

Junko sighed quietly, brushing off the tension that had suddenly risen between them. "I'm afraid not. Houses don't often come up vacant in a town where no one moves away." She paused a moment. "Though a place does come to mind now that I think of it; my family owns a hunting cabin about fifteen miles northeast of town, at the base of the mountain. My father's too old to go up there nowadays and no one's used it in years. I'm not sure what sort of condition it's in, but you're welcome to stay there as long as you need."

Sakura didn't particularly like the idea of being so isolated from civilization, all alone in a cabin in the woods with Uchiha Itachi, but it seemed there was no other choice. Misgivings aside, it was the perfect place for their needs. No one would have to deal with Itachi but her, and if dangerous people _did_ come around, this town and its people wouldn't become collateral damage. She smiled gratefully and thanked the elder woman for her generosity.

After that Sakura walked down the street to the general store to stock up on the supplies they would need. Fortunately activities like hunting and trapping were popular here, so she had no trouble finding everything she would need for survival out in the wild. Having no idea how long this venture would take, she wanted to be prepared, and kept in mind that Junko said she didn't know how fit that cabin was for habitation. For all she knew they could arrive to find the roof collapsed or that a family of bears had taken up residence.

Most of her mission allowance had been spent already, so the remaining expense was covered out of her own pocket. She hoped she could convince Tsunade to reimburse her, because it turned out stockpiling a month's worth of food and supplies for two wasn't cheap. More than that, though, she just hoped her bargain with Itachi didn't get her demoted to genin or thrown in the stocks.

She returned to the clinic in a single trip thanks to the help of the store owner's son, who kept staring at her then looking away when she caught him. When they dropped the supplies off in the empty room next to Itachi's she asked him if he could show her where the rookery was so she could send a message. The boy stared at her blankly for a moment before informing Sakura – to her dismay – that there wasn't one. She thanked him for his help anyway. He blushed furiously and tipped his hat to her before hurrying out.

Sakura found Junko behind the reception desk. The doctor turned to Sakura with a knowing smile. "I think young Makoto's smitten by you. You're probably the prettiest thing he'll ever see in his life."

She just gave that little polite smile people give when they don't have anything to say. A country boy's crush was the last thing on her mind. "He said there's no rookery here?"

"There isn't. Why, do you need to send a message?"

She nodded. "To Tsunade-shishou."

"You'll have to use the regular post. It runs weekly out here; the postman should be round in about four days."

Great. She was expected to report back in two. "How soon do you think a letter would reach Konoha?"

Junko shrugged helplessly. "Well, I really can't say. A week, maybe?"

Sakura nearly groaned. Eleven days at least until word of her situation reached home. By that time Tsunade would probably have sent someone to look for her; it wasn't like Sakura to be late without sending a message. "Do you have some stationery I can use?" she asked resignedly.

"Sure thing." Junko rifled around behind the desk and came up with some paper and an envelope and passed them to her.

"Would it be alright if had mail sent here?" She would be awaiting orders once the Hokage got her letter, and needed a place to receive them.

"Of course, dear. Tell Lady Tsunade I said hello."

It wasn't that sort of letter, but Sakura humored her with a polite smile, and the doctor wandered off to the back of the clinic. Sakura sat at the desk, grabbed a pen, sighed wearily, and began to write. It had been a while since she'd used level four encryption and she had a lot to say, so she'd be at it a while. The nurse called Shion—the one Itachi _hadn't_ assaulted today—came out from the back and left the clinic, her shift over. Mai followed shortly after, and Sakura stole a glance at her arm to see the damage, but she appeared fine, with no visible marks. Apparently Itachi wasn't as rough as she'd made it seem. Sakura's wrists, however, were already splotched with purple.

Junko came out several minutes later and drew the blinds. Sakura had assumed the doctor lived above the clinic, which was common in small towns, and it appeared she'd been right, as Junko showed no signs of leaving. Before sliding the bolts on the door, she paused and turned to Sakura. "Do you still plan to stay at the inn tonight?"

"There's still a lot he and I need to discuss," she said, jerking her head in the direction of Itachi's room. "Would it be alright if I slept in the empty room next to his?"

"Go right ahead. I've arranged for someone to come in the morning and take you out to the cabin. The washroom's at the end of the hall there, and I'll be upstairs if you need anything."

Junko locked up and headed up to her living quarters. Sakura finished her letter, only the tick of the clock and scratch of her pen breaking the silence.

When she finally returned to Itachi's room it was nearing midnight. She assumed he would be asleep but instead he sat upright, seemingly deep in thought. He continued to stare at nothing even when he heard her enter. She noticed that he held his arm in his lap as if favoring it, and that his wrist was slightly swollen. In her panic she may have used a little too much force to break free of him earlier; it was possible she had sprained or even broken his wrist. Not that he'd even grunted in pain to show it.

Sakura sat in the same chair as before, sighing tiredly. "I've worked it out. We'll be staying at a place outside of town until this is finished." Itachi finally acknowledged her presence, raising shadow-rimmed eyes to meet hers. She gave him a long look. "What are the chances that Akatsuki is looking for you?"

"Minimal," he replied. "Madara left me for dead. It will be several weeks before he learns otherwise, and by that time the trail will have gone cold."

Sakura frowned. "What does Madara have to do with Akatsuki?"

His onyx gaze intensified. "Akatsuki is Madara's creation. He controls their movements."

"But Jiraiya said that someone called Pein was the leader of Akatsuki," she argued, frown deepening in confusion.

"Only on the surface."

Sakura opened her mouth to blurt any number of questions, but decided now wasn't the time. Itachi certainly had a _lot_ of explaining to do in the weeks ahead. A long moment passed as Sakura gathered her thoughts, while Itachi kept his as guarded as ever. At last she said, "So…when did you first realize you were sick?"

"Six years ago."

She nodded faintly. "What medications have you been taking?"

He told her. They were illegal and unapproved, which didn't really surprise her. What _did_ surprise her was that those drugs had no healing properties; they were high-dose painkillers and cough suppressants.

Sakura told him she would be right back and left the room. The clinic was dark and silent; she could hear the faint thrum of machinery—probably a generator—somewhere in the back. Not wanting to wake Junko for something she could do herself, she silently made her way into the staff area and located the supply room. She turned the light on and searched the shelves, intending to replicate Itachi's cocktail as closely as possible and fortify it with vitamins, antibiotics, and anything else she could think of that might ease her workload.

Again she mentally listed Itachi's previous regimen, and again she was left confused; surely he'd known what those drugs would and _would_ _not_ do for him. Her search paused suddenly, her hands resting flat on the shelf as she exhaled softly in understanding.

Itachi was never trying to cure his illness. He only wanted to hide it.

It made sense; in his world—the dangerous, treacherous world of missing-nin—exposing a weakness like that would have been fatal. But why hadn't he at least tried, at first, to find a cure? Had her snarky jibe been accurate after all…did he really _want_ to die? And if that was the case, what had changed his mind?

Then it struck her: it all led back to Sasuke. Itachi said he'd learned of his condition six years ago…which was around the same time he came back into Sasuke's life and started pushing him down the dark path of revenge. Had Itachi realized his time was short and _wanted_ Sasuke to kill him? Yet now he wanted to live because Sasuke needed him?

That was the only logical conclusion she could come to, though it contradicted everything she believed about Itachi and his relationship with his brother. Nothing about this man made any sense!

Confused, and irritated because of it, Sakura returned with the medications and set them on the bedside table. Itachi picked them up one by one and read their labels. Sakura noticed that he squinted a little, as though he had trouble reading the small print. The last bottle contained valerian extract, and his brow pulled downward in a frown as he rolled it between his fingers and observed the thick, yellowish-green liquid. He set it back on the table and gave her a stern look.

"No sedatives."

"It's only because you're already in a lot of pain, and healing with chakra can be uncomfortable for the patient," she explained.

"That's fine. But no sedatives," he repeated firmly.

"What are you so worried about? I'm not going to _do_ anything—"

"_No_."

Sakura glared at him, exasperated. He didn't trust her. She didn't trust him either. They were both taking equal risks, all things considered. _He_ was the one to ask _her_ for help; the least he could do was cooperate fully. But if he wanted to suffer more than necessary she really couldn't care less. "Fine, whatever," she snapped. A tense moment passed before she went on, "I wanted to do a preliminary session tonight, so that the journey won't be so hard on you tomorrow."

Itachi nodded his assent, and Sakura scooted the chair closer to the bed in order to reach him. "Give me your arm." She held it gently and turned it at the elbow, then at the wrist—it was definitely sprained. She clicked her tongue softly in reproach. "You should have said something before it swelled up like this." She didn't apologize for it because she wasn't sorry. He didn't reply, but his eyes lingered on her own mottled wrists, for which he clearly wasn't sorry either.

The awkward tension remained between them even after she'd finished his arm and moved on to internal work, boosting his immune system and ensuring his lungs could handle breathing the cold air tomorrow. Itachi was perfectly composed and withdrawn, but Sakura couldn't stand the lengthening silence. Normally she didn't mind quiet, even craved it, but Itachi made her uncomfortable just by being _him_, and the situation she found herself in was a little overwhelming. When the silences stretched between them she started thinking of all the questions she had, thinking about how much she despised him for everything he'd done. She couldn't concentrate, and so after a while she attempted to start a simple conversation to keep her mind off darker, more confusing thoughts.

"So, uh…how did you know I was a kunoichi?" she asked quietly. She'd had her chakra repressed and was averagely dressed. She shouldn't have been suspicious at all.

Itachi gave her a measuring look, almost studying her. "Several things gave you away," he said. "Your hands bear calluses from weapon use, as well as scars acquired from learning to use them."

Sakura frowned indignantly. Her hands weren't _that_ rough, she used lotion all the time! And those scars were barely noticeable, more like cat scratches or papercuts, faded reminders of her clumsy academy days before she'd ever heard of medical ninjutsu.

"I could also smell the clove oil on your kunai," he continued. "In the future you may want to consider switching to unscented."

"I'll keep that in mind," she muttered dryly.

"However, what gave you away most was your chakra."

Sakura looked up at him, confused. "My chakra was completely repressed."

"Yes, and that was your mistake." He watched her a moment before explaining, "All living creatures possess chakra in different levels. With training you can identify the differences between shinobi and civilians, animals, and spirit creatures such as summons. The complete absence of chakra is unnatural. As a medic you know this; it's how you know something has died. You also know that only shinobi are able to hide their chakra signatures. In the wilderness, such as a forest which is teeming with life, doing so creates a void, a blank spot where something should be but isn't_,_ making it very easy to detect the location of your enemy. The key is to mask your chakra, but let just enough leak to not create that hole. In an urban environment such as this it is more complicated, but you were only inches from me."

Itachi's tone was mild and even as ever, purely observational, but Sakura still felt self-conscious, like she was being lectured. It occurred to her only now that, sick and weakened as he was, he'd been masking his chakra flawlessly this entire time. Her cheeks grew hot.

"It's never been an issue before," she said defensively, but even to her own ears she sounded childish, which only furthered her embarrassment.

"Then you have been lucky in your encounters. Such a mistake could have gotten you killed."

Sakura knew it. She'd come close today. Itachi was in no condition to fight, but he had been _so_ fast, taking her completely by surprise. He could have snapped her neck before she even realized he'd moved. The knowledge frightened her, and that fear made her angry.

"Well maybe you can teach me all your fancy little tricks sometime, Mister Perfect Shinobi," she said acridly.

"If you like."

Her anger drained away, replaced by surprise. "Erm…oh. Seriously?"

Itachi gave the faintest shrug. "If time and circumstance allow."

She didn't really know what to make of his offer, but she couldn't deny it would be kind of cool to receive a few specialized lessons from one of the best shinobi in the five nations. As long as he didn't try to kill her.

"And I'm far from the perfect shinobi," he added softly, almost to himself.

Sakura didn't ask him to elaborate. She'd been baffled enough by his cryptic comments and irreconcilable demeanor for one night. Instead she questioned him for more concrete answers. "So, the injuries you sustained before coming here…were from your fight with Sasuke?" Itachi nodded. "How badly was _he_ injured?"

"Equally, at least. Though I'm sure he received medical treatment."

Sakura grit her teeth, trying to rein in the hostility threatening to surface. Sasuke had spent the last five years trying to pick a fight with this man; if he still wasn't ready after all this time, he probably never would be. She couldn't logically be angry at Itachi for not simply rolling over and letting his brother win.

As if he'd read her thoughts, or perhaps her expression, he said, "I didn't go easy on him, but I wasn't trying to kill him."

That surprised her, and she frowned as her chakra flow paused. "Then what _were_ you trying to do?" Itachi didn't reply, and she knew by the blank expression on his face that he wasn't going to, at least not at this time. Sakura sighed. Even a direct, open conversation with him was full of mystery. "I'm just wondering about what happened. He wanted to kill you, but obviously he didn't. You didn't kill him either, so how is it you _both_ lived through a fight to the death? The guy who looks like a flytrap—"

"Zetsu," he supplied.

"Okay. Well _Zetsu_ told the crazy guy in the orange mask that Sasuke won and you died, but that Sasuke was in serious condition as well. They took off to find you. We followed them to a fortress where your Amaterasu was burning out of control, but there was no one there when we arrived. Do you remember what happened?"

Itachi was silent a long moment. As usual, she couldn't tell anything from his expression, but she had a feeling he remembered everything perfectly. Yet all he eventually said was, "The fight was too much of a strain in my condition and I lost consciousness. My brother must have believed I was dead, or he would have ensured it."

"Unless he _also_ lost consciousness," Sakura murmured.

Several minutes passed silently before Itachi spoke again, almost as an afterthought. "The man in the mask was Madara."

Sakura stared at him wide-eyed, though she found she wasn't really surprised. Who else could it have been? He'd intercepted them, kept them from reaching Sasuke, and immediately abandoned his pretense of a fight to rush to the scene of the brothers' battle. He'd been _right there_…if only they'd known. But there was no point thinking about what might have been, nor in presuming they'd had any kind of handle on that situation, because they hadn't. Even if they _had_ known it was Madara, the outcome wouldn't have been any different. She emitted a long, slow sigh. "What's the next thing you remember?"

"Waking in darkness," he replied quietly. "I believe I must have been comatose for several days. Madara brought me to one of his hideouts and left me there, for what reason I don't know, though he clearly believed I was dead."

Sakura was slightly incredulous. "He didn't bother to check?"

"I must have been close enough to death to be convincing. For non-medics such a thing isn't always so easy to tell without close examination. Furthermore, Madara is an egomaniacal man. The greatest faults of arrogance are underestimation and oversight."

"How did you escape?" Her chakra output had stopped a while ago and she just sat beside him now, fully engaged in their conversation.

"By walking out the front door," he said simply. "As I said, Madara believed I was dead, and left me as such with no security precautions. The compound is built into the cliffs on the western side of these mountains, facing the sea. When I awoke, Madara, my brother, and the others with them had already moved on. I found what little food and water I could and made my way down the mountain through the southern pass. From there I wandered until I found this village."

The rest Sakura already knew. "From what Junko told me, you barely made it," she said, more than a little amazed at his fortitude and willpower, that he could survive the wilderness in such a state.

"I wasn't sure that I would, and when I collapsed and woke up in this place I knew I could go no further, that my effort was futile," he admitted quietly. He held her gaze, his lips curving ironically. "Until you arrived. Perhaps we were meant to meet in this place."

Sakura stared into those dark, absorbing eyes, unsure whether she wanted to entertain that idea. His words resonated deeply within her; she had always been a believer in destiny, but at the same time she didn't really want to accept that her fate might be entwined in some way with Uchiha Itachi's.

In any case, they now found themselves here, and they had made a bargain. Sakura would hold up her end and see it through to its conclusion, whatever that may be.

* * *

The night passed fitfully for Sakura, too caught up in her own troubled thoughts to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time. Itachi's night wasn't any better; she heard him erupt into sporadic, prolonged coughing fits throughout the night. Maybe it bothered him more when he slept and his body tried in vain to repair itself. Maybe he was just really good at holding back in front of others; after all, he had concealed this illness for the past six years.

She checked on him first thing after getting dressed, and found him no better or worse than the night before: haggard, pale. She asked him a few brief medical questions which he answered just as briefly. Other than that they didn't speak, and Sakura left him to get ready while she took care of a few last details. She put her encrypted letter in the mail and willed it to travel as fast as possible.

Junko was about, preparing the clinic for the day, and Sakura spoke to her once she'd moved all of their supplies and equipment from her room to the reception area. "I hope you don't mind, but I needed some vitamins and medication from your storeroom. I'll make sure you get reimbursed for them as soon as I'm in contact with Konoha."

Junko waved it off. "You can have whatever you need. You're taking on a huge burden, doing this all alone. Anything I can do to help, consider it done."

Sakura smiled gratefully. If not for the elder woman's help her task would have been far more difficult. "Thank you. I'll probably need to come back to town periodically for supplies, and I'll check in for messages." On an afterthought she added, "Oh, and if anyone comes looking for _me_, specifically, you can tell them where to find me. If someone is looking for _him_…"

"I'll tell them he died."

Sakura shook her head. "No, they'd want the body." The doctor looked horrified and bewildered by the idea. She thought for a moment. "Tell them…tell them we went to Konoha."

Junko studied her worriedly, and then gave a somber nod. "Alright then."

A grizzled older man called Han, whom Junko had recruited the night before, arrived a few minutes later to take Sakura and Itachi out to the cabin. It turned out he was the same heavy-browed cart driver that passed Sakura in the street, and was also Mai's husband. He greeted Junko gruffly and gave Sakura a silent once-over. He seemed very put-upon about the whole thing. Sakura just hoped Mai hadn't told her husband much about Itachi or the ride might get very unpleasant.

The morning was frigid, with a biting wind that had her teeth clenching and her ears aching. The sky was an opaque, cloudy gray that threatened rain or even snow at any moment. She hoped the weather would hold until they were out of the open.

Han helped Sakura load the supplies and gear onto the wagon, giving her strange looks whenever she lifted things he apparently thought should have been too heavy for a girl of her petite stature. Clapping the dirt from her hands as she hopped down from the flatbed, she shot him a disarming smile. He frowned and muttered something under his breath before turning away and climbing into the driver's seat. Sakura rolled her eyes at his back and went inside to fetch her patient.

It surprised her to find him standing in the middle of his room, tying his long black hair into its usual ponytail. Apparently he _was_ capable of moving on his own, though certainly too weak to be up and about for long periods.

Itachi's own clothing had been ruined by his fight with Sasuke and the subsequent ordeal, so the nurses had provided him with pants and a knit sweater that probably would have hung on his lean frame even when he was fit, both in nondescript grays. Sakura half expected him to be wearing flannel like most of the other men around here, and was glad he wasn't because she didn't think she'd be able to keep from laughing at the sight of Uchiha Itachi: rustic woodsman.

"Everything's ready to go," she told him, leaning back against the doorframe. He looked her way and nodded faintly. She watched him a moment longer before crossing to the bed and grabbing the thick coverlet. Standing next to him, she realized he was a lot taller than she'd thought; even with her thick-heeled boots on, the top of her head only reached his chin. His ill health and thinness made him appear smaller, but in reality he rivaled Kakashi in height.

Looking up into his dark, shadowed eyes as he looked down into hers, Sakura suddenly felt a twinge of anxiety, as if she had somehow lost some of her equal footing with him by the subtle shift in his presence. He seemed more…_real_. Solid. Looming over her with that heavy gaze, he was less the dying man in a hospital bed, and more the shinobi she remembered. It bothered her that she felt intimidated by him when he wasn't even trying. "Here," she said shortly, holding the blanket out. "It's cold and windy outside and your immune system is weakened. The last thing we need is you catching the flu."

Itachi took it wordlessly and wrapped it around himself. Feeling slightly awkward again and not knowing what else to say, Sakura left the room. The Uchiha followed silently behind.

The two nurses were nowhere to be seen, probably hiding from the mere sight of the man who'd made their jobs hell over the last three weeks, but Junko was waiting for them. She cast a wary, but still compassionate glance at Itachi as he walked past, and then turned to Sakura. "You know, I still don't know his name," she mused.

"It's Itachi." She wasn't about to include his surname, as Uchiha was a name known far and wide even among civilians, and the less the townsfolk knew about who they were harboring, the better—and safer—it would be for everyone. "Thank you for taking care of him until now. And I apologize for his attitude." She smiled faintly, but it rankled to have to apologize for him. She wouldn't have, if she didn't have to pretend they were comrades.

Junko pursed her lips. "Well, it's a healer's duty to give treatment without judgment." She laid her hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Good luck with him, and don't you push yourself too hard."

"Thank you for all your help, Junko-san," she said, and followed Itachi outside.

They set off. Sakura and Itachi rode in the back of the wagon with the supplies, shielded from the brunt of the icy wind by the ledge of the driver's seat, though not protected at all from the rolling jostle of the cart's passage over rocky, uneven terrain. Sakura passed the time by gazing out across the vast, wild moor, occasionally shooting an anxious glance at the sky, willing it not to rain. Itachi was as silent and gloomy as the thunderclouds overhead.

The trip was slow and long. Much longer than she'd expected, and she began to worry about the man next to her, who held the blanket tightly around himself and sat very still and rigid, his brow pulled downward much like their driver's. Occasionally he would huff faintly, which she recognized as tightly restrained coughing. Sakura knew he was catching a chill, despite her efforts to prevent it. She was tempted to offer him her scarf and hat, but was pretty certain he would flat out refuse the fuzzy green accessories no matter how cold he was, and fighting him about it would only strain him further. Nor did she feel comfortable scooting closer to share what little body heat she had. She pulled her knees to her chest, wishing she had a blanket too, and they rode on in anxious, uncomfortable silence.

The open landscape turned to forest as they passed into the foothills. About a half hour after crossing a stream via a low wooden bridge, the trees thinned a little into a small glade; a layer of mist curled over the tall, pale grass, and at the far end near the opposite treeline was their cabin.

Sakura sighed in relief, eager to stand and get some feeling back into her frozen rear. The air was cold and foggy, leaving her cheeks moist and the exposed parts of her hair frizzy. It was also having an adverse affect on Itachi; his breathing was short and fitful, and when he released his rigid posture to step down from the wagon, she could see a slight tremble in his shoulders. He needed to get inside and warm up, fast.

Sakura went to the door and used the key Junko had given her, hoping that the lock wasn't frozen or rusted beyond use. It stuck a little but didn't require much force, and she entered to find a very dusty and stale but inhabitable living space, no bears or forest critters of any sort in residence.

Moving to the bed, she grabbed the quilted comforter and shook it roughly, holding her breath against the dust cloud that rose. Once satisfied it was as clean as it was going to get, she tossed it on the foot of the bed and went back outside. Itachi was making his way over, slowly and tensely, as if it took considerable effort just to stand upright. He was far weaker than he appeared, and was trying to hide it. She reached for him, but withdrew at the sharp look he shot her. Her brows drew together, both irritated and concerned. "Go inside and lie down," she instructed.

Sakura began unloading their supplies quickly and efficiently, carrying loads that appeared too heavy for her without batting an eyelash, setting them down on the covered porch and going back for more. She had no time to notice Han's bemused, almost wary glances as he helped her.

"Thank you for bringing us out here," she told him once everything was unloaded.

"The winter's comin' fast. Once the snows set in a wagon won't be able to make it out here. You'll be stuck, unless you want to walk," he warned gruffly.

"I understand," Sakura said. "We'll be fine." Itachi wouldn't be traveling anywhere, but she would have no problems running the distance to the village and back. Indeed, she could do it three times as fast as the wagon and its plodding oxen did.

The old man nodded to her and turned away, unaware that her acute hearing picked up his mumbled "damn strange foreigners" as he walked away. She could also hear the muffled sound of Itachi starting to cough.

The sound worsened considerably as she gathered an armful of supplies to take inside, and as she came through the door she saw Itachi doubled over at the edge of the bed, blood seeping through his fingers, dripping onto the dusty floor as his body was wracked with spasms. He couldn't hold back anymore. The full force of his illness hit him like a wave, and he pitched forward toward the ground. The load in her arms fell with a loud clatter as she rushed to catch him.

He had no strength to hold himself up, and the weight of him dragged them both down until she was on her knees beside him, holding him upright around the shoulders. His coughing didn't cease, and now he was nearly choking on the amount of blood filling his airways; a small puddle of sticky crimson already stained the floor between his knees. All Sakura could do was hold him still until he calmed down and the fit passed. Eventually his breathing evened, though it remained ragged and his thin shoulders still trembled with each shaky exhale. A little of his strength returned and he pulled away from her unsteadily, the long ends of his damp hair clinging to her arm for a moment. Sakura sat back a little, suddenly aware of their proximity, and that such contact was no longer necessary. Itachi braced himself on his hands, fists clenched white-knuckled against the dirty floor in pain, anger, or maybe even shame.

She left his side momentarily to fetch a dishrag she spotted next to the sink. She unfolded it clean side out so he that wouldn't inhale who knew how many years of dust. Itachi took it without looking at her and slowly wiped the blood and spittle from his colorless lips and chin. The echoing silence surrounding them in the aftermath felt too loud in the small, stuffy room.

The episode fortified Sakura, erasing her feelings of anxiety and awkwardness as she settled into that familiar, coolly professional rhythm. He let her help him up and into bed—too tired and ailing to be proud. His eyes remained closed and she was glad she didn't have to see the look in them. Being so completely helpless and humbled in front of a stranger couldn't be easy.

Next to the hearth was a pile of old, dry firewood, the kind that burned fast and hot. She piled up a few logs, opened the flue, and lit a fire with a small katon jutsu. When it was burning steadily she got up and finished moving the supplies inside. The wagon ride and coughing fit had left Itachi spent and he appeared to be asleep already, though it worried her that his breathing was still a little shaky and wet. She made sure he was stable before heading outside.

The wagon and its driver were long gone when she went out again and moved around the clearing with shinobi speed, laying chakra sensors and a few genjutsu traps on the ground and in the trees in a hundred meter circular perimeter around the cabin. It wouldn't hold off Akatsuki, or Uchiha Madara, but at least it would provide some warning.

Next she inspected the outside of the cabin. The tiled roof was covered by moss in many places, but it was intact. She leapt up onto it to check the chimney for blockage or collapse, but it was in good condition as well, and gray-white smoke curled lazily from the blackened opening. The rainwater cistern was full and remarkably clean of debris. There were no cracks or holes in the windows, though one of the shutters was broken, hanging crookedly from its hinge. She found an oil drum in back, with plenty inside for lighting the lamps and portable stove she'd brought just in case. However she was extremely pleased to find a generator as well, and managed to fire it up with a few attempts. She'd prepared for nearly everything in the event there wouldn't be electricity, but there was one thing the generator could provide that none of their supplies could: hot water.

It had been about an hour since she'd left Itachi, and so, satisfied with her inspection, she went back inside to take care of her patient. The fire had done its job, and as she finally removed her coat, she sighed pleasantly at the toasty warmth tingling her face and fingers.

Turning her attention to Itachi, she realized he wasn't asleep as she'd thought. He lay shivering on his side, his features flushed an unnatural pink and clammy with sweat, his breathing shallow and rapid. She cursed softly and moved to his side, placed the back of her hand against his damp brow. He was burning up.

Itachi's condition was far direr than she'd realized. Junko had estimated a week; the long trip and exposure to cold had probably halved that. He was critical now. If she didn't start the healing immediately he would die within a few days, maybe even sooner.

Sakura went to her pack for the medication she'd taken from the clinic, including the sedative he'd refused. She turned on the kitchen sink, anxiously watched it sputter and spit for a moment before a clear stream poured out, then rinsed and filled one of the glasses she found in the cabinet. She didn't hide her actions from him, and knew he was aware that she put a few drops of the sedative in his water.

Crossing back to him with the glass and pill bottles in hand, she said, "Can you sit up?" He did, slowly, and leaned back against the headboard with a shaky sigh, as if even the smallest action exhausted him. She took a pill from each bottle and held them in her palm. "Take these," she instructed softly. "They'll make things easier on both of us."

Itachi didn't move. He stared at the glass in her hand before fixing her with a tired glare. "I said no—"

Sakura had no patience for his stubbornness, and cut him off. "Itachi. Now is _not_ the time for this. If I wanted you dead, all I'd need to do is stand back and watch. You asked me to help you, and I'm _trying_, damn it, but you have to _let_ me."

Itachi continued to scowl at her for a long moment, but eventually sighed and reached for the glass. When he'd swallowed the last pill and drained the water she had him lie down again, and then her hands flared with chakra.

Sakura spent the rest of the day and long into the night healing him. Itachi's condition worsened, his fever rose, and by nightfall he was unconscious. Before she could fully focus on his disease she had to break this fever, but his body and organs were weakened by illness, his immune system compromised. He couldn't fight it off. It was all on her.

All worries of the past twenty-four hours faded to the back of her mind. He wasn't a dangerous enemy right now, like this. He was her patient. Her only thoughts were of saving his life. She didn't stop until her chakra was depleted and she could barely keep herself upright, eventually passing out with her head in her arms at the edge of the bed.

The second day was worse than the first. Itachi's fever had receded but not broken, and the disease roared through him with renewed vengeance. He couldn't hold food down, not even the soup she prepared. His coughing was violent and relentless, leaving him constantly short of breath and unable to lie supine or find a comfortable position due to the fluid in his lungs. A few times he vomited blood.

In the beginning he continued to stubbornly resist her in little ways, remaining ambivalent, distressed, and angry. Sakura didn't entirely understand why; after all, he'd practically begged her to help him, and despite her theories about his initial motives, he seemed to very much want to live. She suspected he was struggling with his pride; a fault seemingly inherited by all Uchihas. She sympathized with how difficult this ordeal must be for him, but if they were going to succeed they needed to trust each other more and work together.

She told him as much when he hesitated to take the sedative again. She reiterated his own words: they needed each other, they had made a deal and, success or failure, they were in this together. She didn't know what she said or did that made him eventually relent, but he did, at last fully surrendering his life into her hands.

After that she didn't speak to him other than quiet, simple commands: "Try to sit up a little." "Drink this." When she wasn't occupied with him, or with keeping the fire going, she kept _herself_ alive with hastily prepared sustenance. When Itachi wasn't being tortured by his wasted, ailing body, he remained mercifully unconscious. The cabin was small, with one main room and one bed, as she'd figured it would be, so she'd bought a cot for herself. But once again at the end of the day she was too exhausted to dig it out, and fell asleep at his bedside. She didn't spare a thought to the fact that she slept within arm's reach of a notorious criminal. Right now, he couldn't hurt a fly.

Over three long and difficult days, Sakura spent nearly every waking moment at Itachi's side, diligently, almost obsessively fighting to keep him alive. She poured everything she had, her knowledge, her stamina, her years of honed skills, every ounce of willpower into the battle, expending her chakra fully to its limits, eating or sleeping only to restore it, and then beginning again. She would _not_ lose. Too much was at stake, and truthfully, she _wanted_ him to live. The little glimpses into this man, what he'd allowed her to see, had fascinated her and she wanted—_needed_—to discover more.

Late into the third night, Itachi's fever finally broke, his breathing evened—at last free of tremors and fluids—and he slept like one who hasn't slept in a decade. Maybe he hadn't, truly.

Sakura exhaled a deep, profoundly grateful sigh. Much more of this kind of strain would have killed them both. Though she was too exhausted to show it, she was immensely proud of herself. She'd done it. Itachi was out of immediate danger. She finally managed to pull her cot and sleeping bag out, and fell into a sleep nearly as deep as Itachi's.

When she woke in the morning he was still sleeping peacefully. She considered taking advantage of his stabilized state to sleep more and recover her own strength…but there was still a lot to be done that had been neglected during Itachi's critical turn. She folded up her cot and checked on her patient, smiling a little at his much-improved condition. Then she started a fire, made a mental note to find more wood as the pile was nearly gone, and went to clean up. Afterward she finished unpacking their supplies and then checked on Itachi again.

His feverish flush had faded, leaving him unnaturally pale once more. His eyes were still dark-rimmed and shadowed with fatigue, his cheeks slightly sunken with malnutrition. He wouldn't die if she turned her back on him for a minute, but he was nowhere near well. All in good time, she told herself. She watched him almost curiously, and after a moment carefully sat at the edge of the bed.

It was the first time she'd had a chance to just _look_ at him, up close, undaunted by the tension and awkwardness that had been between them before. They weren't facing off in as enemies, and she was no longer more concerned with what was going on _inside_ of him than out. She took full advantage of the opportunity to study him thoroughly.

His resemblance to Sasuke was remarkable, but Uchiha genes were strong; they all shared certain familial traits, from what she'd seen in photos. Looking closely, Sakura could easily see there were as many differences between them as similarities. She thought Itachi was better looking, if she was being perfectly honest with herself. His features were more masculine, his jawline stronger, lips thinner and more shapely. She had a feeling Sasuke favored their mother. Itachi's hair was a softer shade of black, his eyes a warmer shade of dark brown. His eyes were his most striking feature, the thing about him that always grabbed her attention and held it. And she would kill to have his long, thick lashes.

It was strange, how even though he was so frail and wasted, he was somehow no less attractive, indeed, almost _more_ so. An ethereal fragility hung over him, as if death's shadow made his beauty more poignant. She was suddenly struck by the urge to touch him, to brush back the dark hair from his brow, just to make sure he was really there with her, that he really had survived the past few days and nights that now seemed surreal, almost a blur.

Sakura blinked, pulling herself out of her thoughts, her hand withdrawing before it completed the impulse. What started as a factual observation had slipped into something else, something she wasn't comfortable thinking about. She told herself she was only thinking that way because Itachi wasn't awake to freak her out with his intense stares and cryptic words.

In truth, she knew that during the past few days, as she fought to save his life, a bond had formed between them whether they liked it or not.

The deeply intimate nature of such intense healing always created a connection between healer and patient. His cells were filled with her chakra, her life energy, and a part of him was joined to her as well, like a strange new awareness alive inside of her. Severe cases like his were usually handled by an entire team of medics in order to prevent this outcome, which could be potentially disastrous for both medic and patient. But by Itachi's insistence they had entered into this alone, and now they had been fused together through their shared experience. It would take a long time for that to wear off.

But that didn't mean she wanted to entertain weird thoughts about him.

Sighing, she rose and busied herself with making coffee. Grabbing one of the wooden chairs from the tiny table, she pulled it over to sit in front of the fire. She wrapped her hands around her mug and stared into the flames, listening to the quiet crackle of wood crumbling to embers, and more muffled and distant, the soft patter of the beginning drops of rain.

Sakura was expected back in Konoha two days ago. By now, Tsunade would be growing concerned. If Junko had been right about the mail service her letter would be leaving today, but might not reach its destination for over a week. She felt apprehensive about her situation here, and wondered now if what she was doing was really as clear-cut and obligatory as it first seemed. What if she'd been wrong in assuming this was what the Hokage would want her to do? What if her shishou would be furious with her for deciding such important things on her own? Would she send hunter-nins up here to find them and arrest Itachi, or kill him?

The idea disturbed her deeply, and she looked over at the man sleeping so soundly a few feet away. Kakashi had always told them to look underneath the underneath, and that concept had never been clearer to her than it was right now.

Itachi wasn't evil. Sakura didn't know _how_ she knew that, but she felt it all the way to her bones. Perhaps it was the inadvertent attunement of the healing, which by its very nature could not lie. She _'felt'_ him, on a raw, instinctual level. His was not the spirit of a wicked, heartless monster. Clearly there was much more to him than what he appeared to be. She didn't think anyone knew just _how much_ more there was.

But Sakura would find out. If they were allowed to remain here, if her healing abilities could give him the time he needed to reveal his secrets to her as he'd sworn to do, she would learn. He'd allowed her a glimpse or two, enticing her curious nature; she _had_ to know more. She would make it her goal, in the coming weeks, to see beyond the mystery to the man underneath.

* * *

Next chapter: _The Truth_


	4. The Truth

**Vespertine**

Chapter Four: The Truth

* * *

_If I told you a secret, _

_Will you hold it and keep it alive?_

_Cause it's burning a hole _

_And I can't get to sleep_

_And I can't live alone in this lie._

* * *

Itachi awoke to the sound of rain; a dim, steady patter pervading his unconscious mind. Surfacing from blackness slowly, he breathed, hazily identified the odor of dust and damp and more faintly, a subtle, feminine scent. In the next moment came the knowledge that he was indeed still breathing—still alive—and that for the first time in a long while the air passing through his lungs was untainted by the bitter, metallic tang of blood.

Other sounds followed: running water, the clink of glass touching a hard surface, faint shuffling, a light weight shifting on an old wooden floor. _Sakura_.

His eyes felt heavy and gritty, his mouth and lips dry, and he knew that he'd been unconscious for a long time. He felt groggy, slow in both mind and body. A very unpleasant feeling, reminiscent of waking in Madara's mountain compound, only without the intense, aching pain and the hollow despair that death had escaped him. This time the knowledge that he lived was comforting and welcome, and he didn't want to sleep anymore.

He slowly opened his eyes, turned his head, and through the bleary fog of medication and fatigue he saw her petite, slender silhouette outlined by the faint glow from the window. The long sleeves of her shirt were pushed up to her elbows, her bright hair pulled back in a careless ponytail, shorter strands falling loose around her face and neck. She was cleaning, washing some dishes.

Itachi observed his surroundings slowly, noting that the long-unused cabin was now clean and tidy, all of the supplies neatly put away. Apparently she'd been at it a while. She probably thought she was being quiet.

As Sakura was unaware of him, he sat up silently and continued to watch her. She shifted to the side and rose up on tiptoe to reach a few more glasses in the cabinet, set them down, then sighed quietly and brushed a few escaped wisps of pink from her face with her forearm. Her movements were so unconsciously graceful and lithe that he wondered how he had failed to notice, how for even a moment he'd believed she was anything but a dancer or a kunoichi.

He watched her for some time, filled with thoughts and observations that he was still too weary to process thoroughly. Only once she'd finished drying the last of the dishes did she turn and finally notice him.

Sakura didn't know how long Itachi had been awake, but she unconsciously smiled when she saw him sitting upright against the headboard, watching her with heavy-lidded eyes. She set the dishtowel on the counter and made her way over to him.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," he murmured hoarsely.

He didn't seem entirely lucid, which was normal after coming out of a near-comatose state. But there were noticeable signs of improvement: his pale skin had regained a little of its color, the shadows under his eyes lighter. He'd remained stable once his fever broke, breathing untroubled save for the occasional slight cough. She'd periodically checked his temperature and vitals since then, and was pleased. The prognosis for a full recovery was good. Better than good, in fact.

Over the last four days, Sakura had familiarized herself extensively with the disease on a cellular level and was now completely confident she could defeat it. She was undecided about whether to tell Itachi. Even though he said he had no expectations, to possibly get his hopes up when his fate with Konoha was still uncertain seemed cruel.

The rains that began the day before continued steadily. It was a prelude to winter, a warning of what would come; when the temperature dropped it would turn to snow. Miles from civilization, the deep, permeating silences of the wilderness were peaceful but also rather eerie, and so to Sakura, the steady, soothing drumming against the tiled roof had been a welcome form of white-noise. Now she could hear the rumblings of a thunderstorm approaching, the sky darkening as heavy black clouds rolled in from the east.

Itachi heard it as well and his eyes slid to the window, took in the dreary gray light of a rainy afternoon. He shifted and cleared his throat softly. "How long?"

"Three nights and most of today," she answered quietly. "Do you remember anything?"

"Flashes…it's mostly a blur." He breathed, slow and deep, testing the improved state of his lungs, savoring the untroubled breath. His gaze turned inward as he recalled an indefinite period of sinking into and emerging from darkness, sometimes filled with excruciating pain, sometimes detached from any sensation at all. It was not the first time he had felt so, and very quietly he said, "I thought I was going to die."

"You were," she confirmed. "You almost did. It took everything I had to keep you alive, but we made it through." She gave a small smile. "The worst is over."

Silence fell, broken only by the soft patter on the roof. Itachi studied her face carefully, searchingly. She knew he was aware of the subtle shift between them, and was trying to reconcile it. He could no longer distrust her; to do so now would be pointless after what they'd just been through. Sakura stared back at him, felt herself pulled in by that intense dark gaze, as if his eyes still had some kind of power even when the doujutsu was inactive. She wondered what he was thinking, what he thought of _her_, of the situation and how it had evolved.

A light flashed suddenly outside the window, followed by the low rumble of distant thunder. Sakura blinked at the sound, breaking herself out of the moment. "You have to be starving," she said, smiling lightly to brush off the strange, unfamiliar tension between them. "I can make some food if you like?"

"I'd like to clean up first."

Sakura didn't blame him; after almost four days of being sick, sweaty and confined to a bed, she'd be dying for a shower too. And frankly, he needed one. She moved forward to help him out of bed, but he shot her one of his _'don't'_ looks which was fast becoming familiar. She backed up a step and watched him stand. Still weak, unsteady on his feet and half out of it from exhaustion and sedation, his pride wouldn't allow him to be treated like an invalid and he managed to walk to the washroom unaided. She was once again amazed by his iron willpower, that determination which enabled him to escape Madara's compound and wander the frigid wilderness before stumbling into Moyama where their paths crossed.

However, when he faltered a little in the doorway, Sakura was finished indulging his ego. "Don't overstrain yourself," she chastised, grasping his shoulders to steady him. "Wait here." She moved around him into the washroom. It was a cramped space meant only for basic hygiene needs; a pedestal sink with attached medicine cabinet, an old-fashioned toilet, and an old wooden tub with brass showerhead on the wall above. Sakura turned on the water and let it run hot, then turned back to find Itachi leaning against the doorframe, watching her. She held her hand out to him. "Give me your clothes."

The vaguely put-upon expression he'd been wearing instantly melted away and he looked bewildered for a brief second before he caught himself. Then he glared. Sakura gave him a look. "Oh, _please_," she scoffed. "I'm a medic; it's nothing I haven't seen before." But while it was true that she'd seen more naked males in her career than she liked to think about, this situation was just _slightly_ different.

Itachi continued to glare and hesitate for a long moment, and then finally, without any further sign of discomfort or embarrassment, lifted his shirt over his head. She took it from him, then averted her eyes when he started unfastening his pants. The faint pop of a button, followed by the slow slide of a zipper…her eyes naturally wanted to follow the sound, and it was very difficult to resist the compulsion. It didn't help that he moved so damned slow. Things would go much quicker if she just did it for him, but she wasn't about to suggest it, for both their sakes.

Perhaps he was still ambivalent about letting her order him around. Sakura could feel him watching her as he undressed, and a small part of her tetchily wondered if he sensed her discomfort and was acting just a little bit spiteful by taking his sweet time and prolonging the awkwardness as long as possible. Or maybe he was just groggy and drugged up and her imagination was running away with her.

She held her hand out to the side, stared fixedly at a mildew spot on the tile and waited. A few shifting sounds, rustles of fabric, and a couple flashes of skin out of the corner of her eye later, she finally felt the weight of his clothing on her palm. But the material began to slide from her grasp, and as she turned to catch it, she inadvertently caught a full glimpse of exactly what she'd been avoiding looking at.

As she'd told him, it was nothing she hadn't seen before. But it was Uchiha Itachi's 'nothing,' and that factor made it infinitely more disturbing. Her gaze immediately shot elsewhere, and to her added horror the first place it landed was the mirror of the medicine cabinet, where she got a clear view of his exposed backside. She immediately sought his face, but when their eyes met it only caused her cheeks to flush a bright pink. Itachi's dark eyes narrowed a fraction. Sakura didn't bother to ponder what was behind that look and quickly turned her back to him.

In a hospital he wouldn't be allowed to bathe himself in his current state, and while she didn't think a sponge bath was really necessary here, her original intention was to at least keep an eye on him. Figuratively. With the shower curtain drawn. The medic in her said she should be professional and just get it over with. But the part of her that was a teenage girl alone in a tiny bathroom with a naked man wanted nothing more than to _get out_.

"I'll just, uh, go and wash these," she said, relieved that she sounded much calmer than she felt. "And, um…don't pass out and crack your head open or anything." She left quickly and shut the door behind her.

The thunderstorm roiled in earnest now, filling the sky with recurrent flashes and rumbling. To get her mind off what just happened, Sakura occupied herself with busywork. She rebuilt the fire and went to wash Itachi's clothes with a few of her own. She'd been very pleased to find an ancient but functional mini-washer next to the electric water heater in a small utility closet; she hated washing clothes by hand. The sheets would have to be washed as well at some point, but Itachi couldn't be without clothes and bedding at the same time.

Itachi was in the washroom for quite a while and Sakura was glad. It was childish and unprofessional, she knew, but as long as his chakra remained stable and she knew he was alright, she'd be perfectly happy if he stayed in there the rest of the day.

However, just as she'd finished hanging the wet clothes over the backs of the table chairs in front of the fire, Itachi emerged with only a towel around his narrow waist. Sakura shot him a quick, cautious glance, which lingered of its own volition, noting what she was too shell-shocked and embarrassed to focus on before. He was very thin, both from lack of proper nourishment and the wasting effects of disease, but he wasn't grotesque. His tall frame was naturally lean, and still retained an attractive shape that even the advanced state of his illness couldn't take away. Her eyes passed over the faded ANBU tattoo on his left shoulder and she tried not to show her surprise. She hadn't known he was in the black ops. Strange that he still had it, that it hadn't been covered with another or removed somehow. She also couldn't help but notice his only visible scars were new; wounds from his fight with Sasuke that hadn't received immediate treatment. It was a reminder of how powerful he was, to be a lifelong shinobi with almost no scars. Elite among the elite. Untouchable.

Sakura noted it all in only a moment and then looked away, feigning nonchalance. "Since you don't have any other clothes you'll have to wait until these dry," she said with practiced composure, grabbing the fire poker to shuffle the logs around and boost the flames. The quicker his clothes dried the better. "Cover up with the blankets or you'll catch another fever."

The shower hadn't seemed to invigorate him any, for he was just as lethargic as before and returned to bed without any resistance. Within a few minutes he was sound asleep again.

Despite the downpour, Sakura bundled up and went outside. There was no way of knowing when the rain would stop and there were only a few logs left by the hearth. If the fire died out they would both be in trouble. She crossed the glade to the edge of the forest, stopping at the base of a small pine. Cracking her knuckles, Sakura took a deep breath and drove a chakra-laden fist into the trunk. A loud _crack_ reverberated through the forest as it splintered at the base, groaned almost mournfully, and began to fall. As the felled tree hit the ground a flock of ravens were startled from their rain shelters and flew away amid a chorus of plaintive cawing.

Flooding chakra through her arms, Sakura hoisted the timber onto her shoulder and carried it back across the clearing to the cabin, dropping it next to the cutting stump, then fetched the axe hanging from the wall near the door and set to work. With chakra-enhanced strength, she had the entire tree chopped into firewood in just under four hours. By then it was growing dark, the thunder had passed but the rain continued, and the temperature was dropping. The task had depleted much of her chakra reserves, and by the time she finished stacking the wood under the eave where it would keep driest she was soaked, freezing, and weary. With a final grunt of effort, she gathered an armful and took it inside.

Itachi was awake and dressed now, standing in front of the fire. He turned to her when she came in, silently watched her pile the logs next to the hearth and strip off her outerwear, brushing the little bits of moss and bark from her coat, then let her hair down to shake the water free of the ends.

"How long have you been awake?"

"A while."

Enough time had passed that she was _mostly_ over the incident in the bathroom, and felt comfortable looking him in the eye. He was fully awake now, eyes focused and clear. Still, he was recovering from a very close brush with death, and needed all the rest he could get. "You really shouldn't be up and moving this much so soon," she reproved mildly. "Are you in any pain?"

Truthfully, his head and throat ached and he still felt utterly listless. Itachi hated the weakness of his body, the helpless inability to do even the simplest things unaided without exhaustion. "I'm fine," he said tonelessly.

Sakura suspected he wasn't being honest and almost demanded he take more meds, but decided against it. Now that his life was no longer in immediate danger, he would not take the sedative again and would be out of bed as much as his stamina would allow. She couldn't really blame him; to a shinobi, not having complete control of mental and physical faculties could be intensely distressing, even frightening. Their lives often depended on being alert and aware at all times. Letting go of that must have been extremely hard for him.

"Just don't push yourself too hard. If you ruin all my work, I'll be pissed. And you really don't want to see that," she warned blithely, moving toward the fire and holding her icy hands out over the welcoming warmth. Itachi was watching her again with that intense, studying expression, and again she found herself unable to look away, wondering what was going through his mind.

He read the question in her eyes, and decided for once to reveal his thoughts. "I saw you demolish the tree," he said, rather amused by the monstrous brute force he'd witnessed the relatively small girl display from the window. "Very impressive."

Sakura had to smile. "Well, I do have the slight advantage of super-strength."

"If being a kunoichi doesn't work out for you I'm sure you would make an excellent lumberjack."

It took a moment for her to notice the hint of a smirk on his lips and realize he was _teasing_ her. It was a strange but pleasant surprise to learn that Uchiha Itachi had a sense of humor. Her smile turned playful. "Nah, the outfits they wear are _very_ unflattering."

The curve of his smirk widened slightly. "You destroyed that cavern in Wind country when you fought Sasori," he said. "Your combat technique is based on precise control and application of chakra, like your medical jutsu."

It wasn't spoken like a question. Sakura had noticed that Itachi rarely asked questions because most times he'd already figured out the answer. He just wanted a confirmation. She nodded.

"Your abilities are remarkable."

Sakura felt her cheeks warm, and smiled softly with pride. "Thanks."

That same, strange tension filled the space between them again. Not really negative in any way, just…different. New. She supposed it was just the link formed through the extensive healing, but it still made her uneasy because she wasn't sure how to react to it. The fire cracked loudly as a log split apart. She tried to think of something to say to break the lengthening silence, but Itachi did so first.

"Are you ready to hear what I know?"

Sakura blinked, taken aback. "You want to do this now?"

"It's as good a time as any," he said plainly.

She supposed it was. She just hadn't thought he would offer so soon, had assumed he would keep his secrets to himself until he was nearly healed. Her lips pressed together and she breathed deeply, preparing herself. "Alright. Something tells me I won't like any of this…but it's why I'm here."

She made them some herbal tea first, figuring Itachi would need something to relieve his cough-abused throat if he intended to talk extensively, and she could use something to calm and soothe herself as well. They sat in front of the fire, Sakura's newly dry laundry removed from the chairs and tossed carelessly on the bed.

For a few minutes, Itachi just stared at the crackling flames in silence. He was preparing to tell her things he'd never told anyone before, things possibly no other living person knew. The weight of that knowledge settled heavily on Sakura's shoulders as she watched him anxiously, waiting.

"I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning," he said at last, meeting her gaze. "What do you know of Konoha's founding?"

Pulling what she'd learned as a child to the front of her mind, Sakura replied, "Konoha was the first of the greater villages, formed a little over eighty years ago by an unprecedented alliance between two of the most powerful shinobi clans in Fire country: Senju and Uchiha. In that time clans usually competed against each other for money and the favors of feudal lords, so an alliance between such powerful clans was groundbreaking. It was also the first step in breaking away from the control of the feudal lords, who only thought of shinobi as tools to be used in their power struggles."

Itachi nodded. "I thought you would know. Not many do."

Sakura found that hard to believe. "It was curriculum at the Academy."

He gave a faintly amused smirk. "Yes, but you're probably one of the few who bothered to remember it."

Sakura knew she was a bookworm, had been called a 'nerd' and bullied for it by some of the meaner, stupider girls in school. But from Itachi such words sounded approving, like a compliment, and she had to smile.

"Madara was the leader of the Uchiha at the time of the alliance," he continued. "He was always ambitious, achieving his position through violence as many before him had done. He killed his own wife to obtain the Mangekyo Sharingan, and convinced his younger brother who followed him with unquestioning obedience to do the same in order to obtain it as well. Possessing the Mangekyo form causes the vision to deteriorate over time, eventually ending in blindness. However, there has always been a way to prevent it: to possess the Mangekyo of another. Madara took his brother's eyes, as he intended all along, and then killed him. With the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan he became the most powerful shinobi in the clan."

"That's horrible! How could anyone do something like that?"

Itachi just looked at her, and a sort of bitter irony passed over his features, as if he was thinking of a humorless joke at his own expense. Then Sakura realized what she'd just said, and to _whom_. Itachi also possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan. Did he, too, kill a loved one to obtain it? Yet Kakashi had it as well, and he hadn't killed anyone for it so there must be another way. She desperately wanted to ask a dozen new questions, but before she could Itachi went on.

"The Senju clan was the greatest rival of the Uchiha. For years they fought and killed each other on opposite sides of the battlefield. The struggles between the enemy lords who hired them became increasingly brutal, and both clans took many losses. One day the leader of the Senju, Hashirama, came to the Uchiha with an offer of alliance. He wanted to create a separate nation of shinobi within Fire country, removed from the influence and power of the feudal lords. It was to be a place where they could choose their battles and who they worked for, where children weren't forced to fight as soon as they could wield a weapon, where they could even choose a different way of life and not be shinobi at all. A place of peace."

Itachi's expression and something in his tone seemed bitter and wistful. Sakura wondered what he was thinking of to make him feel that way, what he _wasn't_ telling her.

"But Madara didn't want the alliance?" she guessed. Madara seemed to thrive on strife; he wouldn't have been much of an advocate for peace, may even have found it threatening.

"No, he did not," Itachi affirmed. "But his hand was forced by the rest of the Uchiha. Hashirama's revolutionary idea was very appealing after decades of constant fighting. The treaty was signed, and Hidden Leaf was born.

"For a while it worked as it was meant to. But eventually other clans were brought into the alliance, including the Hyuuga: progenitor of the Uchiha. The two clans had a longstanding blood-feud, and Madara was furious that they were being asked to coexist. He didn't want peace in any form. To his mind, power and respect can only come from conflict, from dominance and superiority. He felt the Uchiha were shamed—neutered, was a word he once used to describe it.

"He tried to convince the clan to break the treaty and leave Konoha, but they did not share his animosity and his arguments were ignored. To Madara this was a grievous insult to his position as clan leader, which increasingly seemed to be in name only. The final blow came when Hashirama was chosen to become Shodai Hokage. Of course Madara wanted the title for himself. Worse yet, as leader of the powerful Uchiha clan and cofounder of the village, Madara wasn't even given the position of second in command. It went to Hashirama's brother, who eventually became the second Hokage. Shodai must have understood what kind of man Madara was and knew he couldn't entrust him with such power. It's likely that his original offer of alliance was simply a way to neutralize one of his greatest threats."

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," Sakura said sagely. This was a much better version than the one in her academy textbooks. Itachi was a good orator when he actually opened up and talked, and she was completely enthralled by his story.

"Yes," he continued,"I believe that was his intention. Madara realized this as well. He could not bear it, and left Konoha. He tracked down the Kyuubi and hypnotized it with the Sharingan, then returned with the intention of destroying the village. Shodai met him, and the battle they fought created what is now known as the Valley of the End. Madara was defeated and believed dead.

"For decades his continued existence remained unknown, but he never forgot his grudge against those he believed betrayed him. Sixteen years ago, he once again used the Kyuubi against Konoha, this time remaining hidden in the shadows. You know how that ended. Afterward he grew paranoid that the incident would be traced to him, and created Akatsuki to mask his movements."

Itachi fell quiet a moment, looked away from her and back to the fire. Sakura watched the flickering light play across his handsome features, dancing shadows exaggerating his subtle expression into something more easily readable. He was troubled…almost angry. She raised her cup to her lips and blew softly across the steaming liquid before taking a sip. Itachi was quiet for so long she thought he might not continue if she didn't urge him to.

"So what is Madara's goal? What does he hope to achieve through Akatsuki?"

"If one bijuu isn't enough to destroy Hidden Leaf, then he will do it with all of them," he answered darkly, meeting her gaze once more.

Sakura's eyes widened in horror. "That's why Akatsuki has been capturing all of the jinchuuriki…"

Itachi nodded somberly. "With the Sharingan, Madara can control them and send them against any target he wishes. He will not stop with Konoha. And now all but the eight- and nine-tails have been captured."

Itachi coughed lightly, and then again more seriously. He'd spoken more tonight than he had in weeks, maybe longer, and what had started as a tickle in his throat had triggered the onset of another fit. It wasn't severe; there was no blood this time, and after a few moments he sighed slowly and sat back.

"Are you alright?" She leaned forward in her chair and reached out to feel his brow. He didn't have a fever, but he looked very tired all of a sudden. "We can talk later if you want to rest…"

He shook his head, edged slightly away from her touch. "No. I want to continue." He cleared his throat and drank from his cup.

Sakura nodded and sat back, drawing her knees up to her chest, balancing her heels on the edge of her chair. "Alright…" Her expression set firmly as she mentally prepared herself to hear what came next. "Tell me about the massacre."

* * *

Next chapter: _The Truth, Pt.2. _


	5. The Truth, part II

**Vespertine**

Chapter Five: The Truth, part II

* * *

_Is there a place deep within?  
_

_A place where you hide your darkest sins?_

_Shamed of what you are and what you been,  
_

_It must be hard living tired in your shoes._

* * *

The mood in the room shifted to something far less comfortable than a few minutes ago. What Itachi told her before was a lesser known version of history, but wasn't really shocking. However the darkness in his eyes told Sakura that _this_, what she was about to hear, would be. This was his big secret.

When he finally continued his tone was slightly different than before. Emptier. Emotionally guarded. This was personal to him.

"Madara had not been entirely alone in his grudge, though none were willing to act on it. There was always a certain level of dissent among a few in the clan. Shodai knew this, and because of it the Uchiha were never fully trusted. Of course, this only caused the resentment to grow and spread over time. When Senju Tobirama took power as Nidaime, he attempted to pacify the growing unrest by creating the Konoha Military Police. But it was a farce; an illusion of power and importance meant to placate them."

"It only made things worse," Sakura discerned. "How do you know all of this?"

"I'll get to that."

She flashed a small, sheepish smile. "Sorry. It's just that I've never heard any of this."

"Of course you haven't," he said flatly. "This information was never meant to be known."

Sakura fully believed that it wasn't, and suspected there was a very specific reason for that. An uneasy feeling began to settle in the pit of her stomach. "What happened after that?"

"The situation was tense but stable for many years. Then the Kyuubi attacked. Both the Sandaime and Yondaime believed it wasn't an accident, that the nine-tails was set upon the village by an outside force. Many remembered Madara's control of the Kyuubi years before, and many eyes turned to the Uchiha clan. No outright accusations were made, but the suspicion was there. I don't know if Madara intended the attack to have the aftereffect it did, but he was certainly pleased by it. If he hates anything more than Konoha it's the Uchiha clan for turning against him."

Though Itachi gave no outward sign of emotion, his aura seemed to darken, and again Sakura sensed a deep, simmering anger under the surface. After what she'd heard so far, she thought she could understand even if she didn't know exactly what was going on in his mind. The story he told made her angry too, and she wasn't even part of it.

"As a security measure we were segregated from the rest of the village, relocated into a single compound where our surveillance would be easier," he continued. "I was six when it happened, and I remember the outrage among the clan as we were forced from our homes. That was the catalyst."

"For what?" she asked warily.

"For the rebellion. Through their own paranoia, the Senju brought about the very thing they had tried to prevent. The Uchiha clan, led by my father, began work on a plot to overthrow the current government and take power for themselves."

Sakura stared at him in muted shock. She began to suspect where the story was going, and dreaded hearing what he would say next.

"It took several years. They expanded their network through the police force, gathering information and building funds. All the children of the clan were rigorously pushed to be perfect soldiers, to manifest the Sharingan as early as possible, and drilled to place loyalty to the clan above all else. I was sent into ANBU at twelve—"

"_Twelve_?" she exclaimed. "I was chasing stray cats around the village on D-ranked missions at twelve! But ANBU…that's just…_wrong_."

Itachi gave her a long look, impossible to read in the wavering firelight. "Regardless," he said at length, "that is the way Konoha operated in those days. Your sensei, Kakashi, was no different. Do you want to discuss ethics or do you want to hear what happened?"

Only mildly chagrined, Sakura silently nodded for him to continue, though her troubled frown remained.

"I was promoted to Captain a year later, and that was when my parents told me of the clan's intentions. I was shown the secret records which detailed the clan's grievances. I was given instructions to use my new position to spy on Konoha and report the information to the clan. No one is closer to the Hokage than the ANBU, and their eventual aim was for me to assassinate the Sandaime."

Sakura was appalled by the revelation, and the knot in her stomach grew and tightened. "But you didn't…. Did he find out somehow?"

Itachi's lips twisted in a faint smirk, but there was no humor in it. "He did. Because I told him."

Sakura gasped softly, eyes going wide, but kept silent this time, knowing he would answer her unasked questions.

"I struggled with it for weeks," he said quietly, voice draining of emotion again. "Over and over, I tried to reconcile myself to what was expected of me, but the more I learned of their plans the more I realized that I couldn't support them. I went to the Sandaime in secret and told him everything. I swore my loyalty to him and to the Leaf, and I became a double agent.

"It was easy enough. I sat at council meetings, in my place as clan heir. The elders were very confident of their plans, and my parents openly discussed it with me, even at home, though never in front of my brother. The coup would begin with the assassination of the Hokage, and as the resulting chaos spread through the village they would make their move to seize power. When I was given a date, I informed the Sandaime. He called a meeting of the village elders, and the decision was made."

Sakura's stomach curled with a sickly, hollow feeling, her jaw falling slack as she put the pieces together. "Gods…" she whispered, "you're saying the massacre was…by Konoha's _order_?"

Itachi held her gaze steadily. "Yes."

He fell silent, remembering the moment that changed the course of his life forever. Sakura's wide eyes were fixed on his profile, her mind reeling. His story had flipped her image of Konoha on its head, exposing horrible, ugly truths on the underside. A long minute passed before she found her voice again. "This doesn't seem possible," she murmured, shaking her head. "The Sandaime was a very noble, peace-loving man. He would never agree to wholesale slaughter, let alone _order_ it."

"He was overruled by Danzou and the other elders," Itachi explained. "And he relented in the end because of that very thing: the preservation of peace."

"How does _genocide_ preserve peace?"

Itachi sighed softly, as though he'd asked himself the same question many times. "Because there would have been civil war otherwise. Many would have died, including civilians…children. In addition to that, internal struggle on such a scale would have badly weakened the village. If our enemies learned of it, they would have used the opportunity to attack. My clansmen were traitors. What they were planning would have destroyed the village and its people and everything the idea of Hidden Leaf was founded on."

Sakura stared at him. This person next to her was not the same man, not the expressionless, ruthless man who'd done terrible things without blinking. This man's eyes were full of sincerity and conviction, and underneath, a void of unfathomable sadness. In that moment Sakura knew he was a completely different person than what the world believed.

He held her gaze intently, searchingly. "Do you see now, why it had to be done?"

That he would even ask such a question surprised her. It went beyond relating the facts. He wanted her to understand his point of view. Her opinion—her _respect_—mattered to him.

But Sakura was too shocked and outraged to be understanding.

"_No_, I _don't_," she answered firmly. "They could have _talked_ about it before taking drastic measures. They could have worked something out! The Uchiha only wanted respect. They didn't want to be continually punished for sins of the past." She scoffed in disgust. "Well they got the ultimate punishment, didn't they? _Extermination_."

Itachi's eyes were downcast, hiding any thoughts or emotion from her view. But she could see the clench of his jaw, knew he was holding something back. She wanted him to _tell_ her, to let it out, to be angry or sad or whatever else he was holding inside.

"Why _you_?" she asked sharply. "Why not an ANBU unit? Why did you do it alone?"

"If ANBU had carried out the order there would have been village-wide uproar. The Hokage and the elders wanted it kept quiet."

"I'll bet. Because it was fucked up and they _knew_ it." Itachi said nothing to that. She gave him a long, hard look. "No matter what wrong they'd done, they were your _family_, Itachi. How could you bring yourself to _kill_ them?"

It took him a long moment to reply. "I had no choice."

"There's always a choice," she argued.

"The alternative was unacceptable."

The sharpening edge to his tone told her he wasn't going to continue this line of conversation much longer. He'd told her his story, and their agreement did not include arguing about it. Sakura realized her anger at him was slightly irrational. Itachi wasn't really to blame; he was merely a pawn. Responsibility for the massacre belonged with the elders. As soon as she contacted Leaf again, Tsunade was going to hear about this.

Sakura studied him closely, trying to discern anything from his carefully masked features. He remained perfectly composed, but Sakura was beginning to learn _that_ was his tell sign: the blanker his expression, the more intensely he felt something. "Do you regret it?" she asked quietly.

Itachi looked up at her. "It was the right thing to do."

She gave a faint, humorless smile. "That doesn't mean you can't feel remorse or sorrow. Do you feel nothing?" She'd seen it in his eyes for only a second, but it had been there. She wanted to hear him say it. _Needed_ to.

"I regret…that it had to happen," he said quietly. "I, too, wish that Konoha had found another way."

They regarded each other in a long silence. Then Sakura stood, stressfully tugged her fingers through her hair as if the slight pain might give her some clarity. She couldn't hear anymore right now. Her head was spinning with these new revelations and she needed time to think and sort it all out.

A small pang in her stomach reminded her she hadn't eaten since that morning, and Itachi hadn't eaten at all and she'd been so caught up in his story that she'd forgotten, so she went to the kitchen and prepared some soup and bread. Itachi remained seated by the fire, vacantly watching the flames. She knew he was still thinking about what he'd told her, possibly reliving some of it in his mind. She put the food on the table for him, but hadn't made any for herself; she wanted to be alone for a while, so instead she went to the bed and grabbed her clean clothes before heading into the washroom.

She didn't turn the faucet on right away, just sat on the rim of the tub and stared at the floor.

"I can't believe this," she sighed softly to herself. Only she _did_ believe it. She could tell herself she didn't, that Itachi was lying – indeed, that would be the easier path to take. But if she did that she would be ignoring her own intuition. She didn't want to think it could be true, but that was only because it contradicted so many things she'd been raised to believe in.

Konoha was supposed to be a place of justice and freedom. Sakura wasn't naïve; she knew the village hired out to all sorts, that they stole and spied and even killed for money. But those things were done to support the village and its people, and when they weren't doing that they were taking out Orochimaru and Akatsuki and anyone who threatened a peaceful way of life. Maybe they weren't the good guys, but they were certainly a lesser evil. From the inside, Konoha was a happy place full of kindness and tolerance and loyal comrades who would die for each other.

And now she was being told of ancient hatreds and conspiracies, betrayal and genocide. It was like peeling back the vibrant, unmarred skin of an orange to find that the flesh underneath had somehow rotted black.

Sighing, Sakura turned the water on, undressed, and stepped into the shower. She bathed mechanically, her mind still rolling over the raw, unadulterated truth of her village's history.

When examined logically, without the blinders of unquestioning patriotism, it made sense. The general reputation of the Uchiha was as gifted but supercilious and entitled, and there was certainly some truth in that. But at its base it was the same sort of subconscious prejudice that Naruto had to deal with as the demon fox host. And she had always thought it unnecessarily cruel that Sasuke had been forced to continue living in the compound where his entire family was murdered, where he'd once seen their dead bodies littering the streets. Sakura had been there once, and had been creeped out enough to never return. There were still bloodstains on the whitewashed walls and the place was probably filled with ghosts. She never understood why Sasuke didn't move somewhere else, until now. Konoha had still been keeping a distrustful eye on him, even though he was the only one left.

It all set her insides burning in outrage, and she was pretty sure there were other dark secrets Konoha didn't want the world or its own people to know. Like the real reason Root existed and what they were really up to, for one. It made her wonder how she could go on believing in her village any longer, following orders without question.

But no matter what, she wouldn't turn her back on her home. If there was something twisted and corrupted within Konoha, it wouldn't be fixed by running away. Naruto would change things. It was his primary goal in life to revolutionize the world of the ninja. Sakura would be there for that, supporting him alongside everyone else who believed they could change the system and make their world a better place.

She thought about Itachi, the man who had, in only a few short hours, completely altered her outlook on their home. And it _was_ 'their' home, she realized with slight wonder. Itachi wasn't a missing-nin by choice; he was a discarded tool the elders no longer wanted around to remind them of their dirty deeds. No wonder he'd seemed so bitter when he alluded to what Konoha was _supposed_ to have been.

This changed everything.

Danzou and the elders would push for Itachi's execution to keep their involvement in the massacre a secret, but Sakura would do everything she could to stop them from covering up the truth a second time.

An icy torrent blasting down over her head shocked her back to her senses, and with a muffled shriek she jumped back and turned the water off. She hadn't even gotten to shave her legs.

Sakura dressed and exited the washroom, her movements automatically quieting when she saw Itachi was asleep again, and when she noticed the empty bowl in the sink, she smiled. She moved silently to his bedside and gazed down at him.

He looked so young when he slept peacefully like this. He _was_ young, only twenty-three, she recalled, but most of the time he seemed so aged and world-weary. She understood a little more about why, now. What must his life have been like? How had he lived with it all these years?

Itachi's account of the massacre had been rather matter of fact, mostly lacking any emotional attachment to the event. But what he'd displayed at the end proved the truth was the opposite: he cared very much, and it affected him deeply to this day. How could it not? He may have obediently carried out the atrocious order, but he was still a human being. He probably hated himself. He probably felt a hundred years old and just wanted it to end already.

It was obvious to Sakura that he wasn't telling her everything, only what he thought she needed to know, only what had relevance in the current situation, only what he wanted her to tell the Hokage. But she wanted to know so much more than that. She had a million questions for him and it was very hard trying to wait for the right moments to ask.

What she'd intuited through the chakra link had been correct—he wasn't a bad person at all. She had expected him to be cold to her, even mean, not to tease her and pay her compliments. He was milder in manner than she'd expected, more soft-spoken, not as dark and menacing as she seemed to remember. It had only been a few days, but her opinion of him had already been changing. And now…she couldn't help but feel compassion for him. She _cared_.

Sakura knew only a little of psychology, but she didn't need to be an expert to recognize that Itachi was a man scarred to his very core. He could warp the horrific tragedy of his past into a rational structure, could try to process and suppress the trauma as much as he liked. But beneath the carefully constructed resignation and acceptance was a tight knot of repressed pain and grief. She _felt_ it through the connection they shared. He was suffering, so deeply and existentially that his entire personality had been altered. It amazed her that he wasn't insane.

Itachi stirred in his sleep, and Sakura silently backed away, not wanting to be found lurking over him if he woke. Her stomach gurgled plaintively, and she quietly went to reheat the leftover soup.

After the late meal which she ate absently and barely tasted, Sakura spent the next few hours curled up in her chair before the dwindling fire, unable to sleep, just thinking and rethinking of the night's revelations and her heightened resolve to do whatever she could to help him.

Itachi awoke sometime around midnight in a coughing fit. She rose and went to his side, gently helped him sit up and offered him a cloth for the blood that lightly speckled his lips. When it passed, he leaned back tiredly and closed his eyes. Without speaking, Sakura sat beside him and began a healing session. He'd done well to go all day without one, and only once coughed hard enough to expel blood. It was a good sign.

The silence between them was comfortable, but Sakura was filled with too many unanswered questions to keep quiet for long.

"I've been thinking."_About you_. "About what you told me." His eyes opened and found hers. She regarded him a moment, determined what she wanted to say first. "You never said what happened after…how you became a missing-nin."

"I had to."

"Because you were made a scapegoat?" she guessed darkly.

"Because of Sasuke."

Sakura frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I was originally to be exiled and listed as dead with the rest of the clan, and I had no doubt that eventually Danzou would send someone to try to kill me," he said evenly, showing nothing of what he thought of such treachery. "But then I did something I wasn't supposed to."

"You let Sasuke live," she realized.

"It was the first time in my life I ever directly disobeyed an order," he said very quietly. "I never intended to kill my little brother. It was the one thing I couldn't bring myself to do."

Sakura's heart wrenched a little at the sadness in his voice. "Did you let him see you on purpose?"

"No. But when he did, when I saw the hatred in his eyes I knew…that he would kill me."

"And you wanted him to," she whispered.

Itachi closed his eyes briefly, gave a single nod.

"Is that why you hurt him?" she asked thickly, "Why you tormented him over and over? To drive his hatred of you so deep that he would stop at nothing until he killed you?"

Itachi didn't have to answer; the truth was in his eyes.

"Why couldn't you just let him move on and have a chance to be happy?" she demanded, suddenly angry. Her chakra output paused. "You ruined his life to ease your own guilty conscience! If you wanted to die that badly you should have just killed yourself!"

"Do you really think he would have let it go?"

Sakura fell silent, her anger draining away slowly with the realization that he was right. Sasuke would have obsessed over it even without Itachi's provocations. Not having that closure would have eaten him alive inside.

"The day he became strong enough to kill me he would be strong enough to protect himself from anything," he said. "Until that day I had to stay alive to protect him."

"From what?"

He gave her a long look. "What do you think?"

Sakura thought about it for a moment, and then it hit her, and her eyes widened in disbelief. "There weren't supposed to be any survivors…"

Itachi confirmed it with a grim nod. "I had to beg the Sandaime to let him live. Sasuke didn't know about the coup, and he'd witnessed my involvement in the massacre. I could take the full blame and leave the village as a criminal. Sasuke would hate me and grow up loyal to Konoha, never knowing the truth. Danzou wanted us both killed, but the Hokage refused, and the other elders saw the benefit of having a scapegoat. But before I left I told them I would expose the truth of the massacre and many other village secrets if they ever harmed my brother."

"And so you've spent the last ten years as a missing-nin…" She gazed at him questioningly. "Wasn't it hard living like that…being in Akatsuki and going along with their deeds? I mean…the entire shinobi world thinks you're a heartless monster."

Itachi held her gaze unflinchingly. "It does not matter what the world thinks of me. I am, and have always been, a loyal shinobi of Konoha."

Sakura was at a loss for words. She felt so bad for him, so sad for his tragic life. But she doubted he'd appreciate her pity, so she kept those thoughts to herself and asked, "Why _did_ you join Akatsuki? Was it because of Madara?"

Itachi nodded once. "I had learned of his existence before I left Konoha, and afterward I pretended to become his disciple and follow him so that I could monitor his movements. I eventually intended to destroy him once and for all."

"You will," she avowed quietly. "You'll have all the help you need. And the elders will be held accountable for their actions."

His lips twisted wryly. "You seem very confident about that."

"I know my shishou. And I know Naruto even better. The truth _will_ come to light, Itachi. You should be pardoned."

Itachi just stared at her for the longest time, so intently that Sakura blushed and looked away. That possibility had never occurred to him as something tangible, and he didn't know what to make of the idea that he might live out the rest of his life as a free man, unburdened by terrible secrets and the heavy weight of sacrifice.

They fell quiet again until she'd finished the healing. Once Itachi confirmed he was in no discomfort, Sakura rose and pulled out her cot and sleeping bag, then went to rebuild the fire one last time before bed. The temperature had dropped in the last few hours so she piled up the logs, hoping it would burn until morning.

But several minutes and several attempts later the logs still didn't burn, only sizzled and smoked, refusing to light. She tried to reposition some of the kindling, but ended up burning herself.

"Damn it!" she muttered, reflexively sticking her abused fingers in her mouth. She channeled soothing chakra to the tips and tried not to think about the dirt and ash she'd just covered her tongue with.

"Is there a problem?" Itachi asked from behind her.

"The wood I cut today is still too green and wet to burn properly," she grumbled. She tried a small katon jutsu, but it didn't work either. Sakura frowned and rubbed her arms. "I should have thought about it," she muttered to herself. "I should have done this yesterday. And why the hell is it so cold tonight?"

"The rain has turned freezing," he informed mildly.

She turned around, surprised. "How do you know that?"

"Its sound has changed."

He was right. The steady, muted patter above them was heavier, sharper than before. Sakura stood and went to the window. "Great," she muttered, confirming the unpleasant change in weather. "The last thing we need when we have no firewood." She went to the utility closet and pulled out the battery operated space heater she'd brought with their supplies. "Well, I guess this will have to do for tonight."

"I can try to start the fire."

It took her a moment to understand what he meant. "No," she said finally, shaking her head. "You shouldn't strain yourself by expending chakra."

"I hardly think a jutsu I've been able to perform since four years old will strain me."

His sardonic and slightly haughty tone irritated her. She was cold and tired and the last thing she wanted to see was Itachi showing off with a giant fireball. "Are _you_ cold?"

"No."

"Then it's fine. The heater can keep us both warm." Itachi didn't argue further, and after the heater was on, metal coils glowing vibrant orange, Sakura climbed onto her cot and pulled the ends of the sleeping bag over her head.

Neither of them slept, and both of them knew it. The embers in the hearth still glowed under the unlit logs but their warmth didn't spread far, and the little heater wasn't enough to fend off the wintry cold seeping through the stone walls and old, thin window panes. Sakura was freezing, little shivers running through her every couple of minutes as if there were a hole in her sleeping bag letting a draft over her back. On top of that, her mind was still racing. She knew Itachi was awake only by gut feeling, the tiny sense that another alert person was in the room with her. It felt the same as being watched.

Little did she know he _was_ watching her. "Sakura," he said calmly, barely disturbing the silence.

Sighing, she peeked out from under the edge of her ineffective covering. "What."

"Your shivering is keeping me awake."

That same vaguely amused lilt to his voice as before. The first time he'd teased her it had been funny. Right now, not so much. "Bite me, Uchiha."

A very pregnant silence followed, and Sakura got the feeling she'd just flummoxed him with her particular word choice. She resisted the urge to giggle. Several more minutes ticked by as she tried in vain to fall asleep.

"Sakura."

She rolled her eyes and didn't bother to lower the covers again. "_What_."

"This bed is large enough to share."

Sakura froze, not quite sure she heard right. Then the covers flew down as she rose up a little, wide eyes meeting his. "Um. I don't…"

In the dim orange illumination of the heater, she clearly saw him smirk. "I won't bite…even though you did ask me to."

It was Sakura's turn to be flummoxed. Was he trying to freak her out? Was this payback? "I don't think it's a good idea…"

"If you stay as you are you will get sick."

And that couldn't happen, or she wouldn't be able to heal him. Rule number one of her medical training: '_the medic must see to their own health and safety before that of others_.'

But less than a week ago this man had attacked her on a different bed and she'd contemplated planting a kunai in his skull.

"I can't believe you're even suggesting this," she said skeptically.

"It's just a bed, Sakura."

The way he said it made it sound like what he really meant was '_grow up_.' Not only did it make her feel immature, but she realized the fact that he really _was_ suggesting it said a lot about how much his opinion of her had changed in six days. After all, he'd been utterly at her mercy for the better part of their time together, and she'd done nothing but help him. Sakura had no such reassurances yet; until now, Itachi had been incapable of being much of a threat. It was a trust issue, and it appeared he now trusted her more than she trusted him.

But her distrust was reflexive, like a phantom pain, still lingering when there was no logical reason for it. Itachi was a good man who wore the mask of a monster. He was a loyal and incredibly selfless shinobi who still cared about the fate of Konoha even after all they'd done to him. If nothing else, he'd shared some of his darkest secrets with her tonight, and that alone should earn a little of her trust.

Sakura gathered her courage and maturity and stood, still wrapped up in her sleeping bag, and as gracefully as possible, she waddled over to the bed. Itachi shifted to give her plenty of room and she crawled in above the top sheet, leaving a thin but tangible barrier between them. It was blissfully warm under the comforter and blankets, and she tried not to sigh too loudly. Feeling a little too uneasy to lie down just yet, she leaned back against the headboard, folding her arms over her midsection. Unfortunately, she was now wide awake. She shot a quick glance at Itachi and saw he was still sitting upright as well, almost exactly as she was.

"Well this is…awkward," she laughed weakly. Itachi didn't acknowledge her. Even more discomfited than before, Sakura sunk lower under the blankets and closed her eyes, determined to count sheep if she had to. It was unclear how much time passed before Itachi softly spoke.

"Forgive my brother."

Her eyes flew open and she looked over at him. "What?"

He stared straight ahead, his profile illuminated by the softly pulsing glow of the heater. "What he was driven to do…it wasn't his fault. Don't hold it against him. I don't want to see him suffer for the past any more than he already has."

Sakura was stunned, to say the least. Forgive Sasuke? Itachi didn't even know _half_ of what Sasuke had done to them. The problem wasn't that he'd left them to pursue revenge. It was what he'd done _after_ that Sakura couldn't forget. He'd turned his blade on her, on Naruto. No one had manipulated him into that and she couldn't—_wouldn't_—be as understanding and dismissive about it as Naruto was. But she didn't say any of these things aloud, and instead casually replied, "What makes you think I hold anything against him?"

Itachi looked at her then, dark eyes glinting in the low light. "You're a bad liar, Sakura."

She frowned slightly. "You don't know me well enough to say that."

"I don't have to know you well. Your face and voice are very expressive. If you can't hide your feelings then you can't lie."

Her lips curled in a wry smirk. "Apparently no one is as good at lying as _you_, Itachi."

Itachi smirked faintly as well, and the quiet that settled around them was no longer uncomfortable, even though his words still hung between them. Sakura didn't have an answer. She wasn't sure if she could forgive Sasuke for everything. She supposed it would depend on what happened in the future and whether he truly regretted his actions. If he truly wanted forgiveness and was willing to earn it, she would do her best to try.

"So…what exactly do you plan to do once you're healed?" she asked quietly, picking at a loose thread on the faded green plaid comforter.

"Find my brother, and together with him, destroy Uchiha Madara," he said darkly.

Sakura turned her head and met his gaze. "How do you know Madara told him anything? What if Sasuke still thinks you're his enemy and attacks you again?"

"I know Madara has told him the truth about the massacre and my part in it, and of how I took measures to protect him over the years, because it would be the only way Sasuke would follow him. He is all too easily driven by his emotions."

"He's being manipulated through his grief," Sakura agreed, lips twisting cynically. "Again."

Itachi gave her a knowing look. "So you do hold a grudge."

Sakura smiled despite herself. "Maybe."

"What will you do then, when you see him again?"

She pondered it a moment, head tilted slightly to the side. "I think…I'm gonna punch him in the face," she said blithely. Itachi raised a brow at her. Sakura smiled. "Forgiveness or not, he still deserves it."

Itachi's lips curved faintly. "I'm sure he does. He was always very foolish."

"Tell me about it," she agreed. "He could never see the good things in his life even when they were right in front of him."

"Yes. That is definitely true," he murmured, holding her gaze steadily.

The moment lengthened into silence as Itachi studied her closely, his eyes softer, but still penetrating. Strangely, it wasn't unsettling to Sakura this time, and a warm smile found its way to her lips.

When neither of them said anything more for nearly a minute, Sakura finally sunk down into the bed. "Goodnight," she murmured softly, and rolled to her side.

"Goodnight, Sakura," came the equally quiet reply, and he turned his back to her as well.

The room fell silent again, but Sakura was painfully aware of him; his near-silent breathing, the faint pulse of his chakra that strangely resonated so much like her own, and the unnatural stillness of his body that told her he was every bit as aware of _her_. It was a long while before either of them slept.

* * *

Next Chapter: _The Message_


	6. The Message

**Vespertine**

Chapter Five: The Message

* * *

_If tomorrow I opened my eyes_

_And found myself somewhere else_

_I wonder who I'd be_

* * *

"I'm going into town today," Sakura said as she set her plate down and took a seat. "I want to do it before the weather gets any worse." She glanced at the window, her eyes trailing the tiny spots of white as they fell through the opaque sky. The temperature had continued to drop over the last week and the snows had arrived. The first soft flakes melted away quickly, but in a few days, perhaps even hours, winter's advancing hard edge would overtake them.

Across the table, Itachi looked up at her and nodded faintly before continuing his meal in silence. Sakura had to smile a little. He could finally hold down a full solid meal, and seemed almost eager to consume his breakfast of eggs, rice and miso. "Is there anything specific you'd like me to bring back?" she asked, before taking a bite of her own eggs.

"A change of clothing."

Sakura gave a small, understanding chuckle. She was getting tired of wearing and rewashing the same thing over and over too, and she at least had an alternate set to change into. "Of course. Anything else?"

A long moment passed in which he seemed to debate admitting to wanting anything beyond basic necessities. "Perhaps…a book," he said at length.

"A book, huh? Are you implying my company is boring?" she teased.

Itachi seemed surprised for a second, as if he'd taken her seriously. "Not at all. I find you quite interesting."

Flattered, Sakura was tempted to ask why, but figured he wouldn't tell her. If he asked her the same question, she probably wouldn't admit it either. "I'll see what I can find, but I don't know how much luck I'll have. You may end up with a month-old newspaper. Seriously, what kind of town doesn't even have a library?"

Amusement flashed behind his eyes. "Indeed," he said, the slight teasing lilt returning to his tone. "A tragedy."

"It _is_," she attempted to retort seriously, before she lost to her own playful grin. "So you like to read?" she asked, curious to learn more about him as a person.

"Having reading material would be a more entertaining way of passing the long hours of the day than staring out the window, even if it is a month-old newspaper," he said, but a moment later admitted, "But it is one of my preferred pastimes."

"Mine too," she said amiably. "What sort of books?"

There was a short pause as Itachi realized he was involved in a personal conversation about himself with someone who was still a relative stranger. But there was no harm in her line of questioning. After all, he'd already told her much bigger secrets than what sorts of books he liked to read. "History, military tactics…philosophy."

"That doesn't really surprise me, except maybe the philosophy. I like sci-fi and murder mysteries," she offered, then smiled guiltily before admitting, "and sometimes those cheesy horror novels, you know, with the rampaging sludge creatures and brain-eating zombies."

Itachi raised one brow slightly. "You seem to have a taste for the morbid."

Sakura laughed. "I think you're probably right. I'm sure you can imagine all the weird and gross stuff I see as a medic."

"I'd rather not," he said dryly.

Sakura chuckled again, and they returned to their breakfast in easy silence.

Things hadn't been nearly as awkward as expected the morning after sharing the bed—which they hadn't shared again as the firewood had passably dried by the next day. Sakura would never admit it aloud, but she'd been tempted to anyway simply because the bed was vastly more comfortable than her meagercot.

In the week since, they had settled into a comfortable sort of routine, learning a little more about each other every day from general observations made through sharing living quarters, as well as conversation. Sakura had discovered one morning that Itachi detested oatmeal and anything with a porridge-like consistency. After noting the way he'd scratched at his three-day stubble after the fever episode and had been perfectly smooth ever since, she'd come to the conclusion that he didn't like not being clean-shaven. Itachi had learned that Sakura was a bit of a neat-freak and liked everything kept in the same place. He had also learned that she was not a morning person, which showed in both her grumpy attitude and shadowed eyes, and that she remained that way until she had caffeine in her system.

They talked idly over meals—which was really Sakura chattering about any number of subjects while Itachi listened and only occasionally offered a response, usually prompted by a direct question from his lively housemate. Healing sessions happened twice a day, one each morning and one after dinner. Sakura checked the perimeter and replaced her sensors daily, which was unnecessary, but it gave her something to do besides clean and cook, the latter of which she had never been very fond. She often napped midday to replenish her chakra and Itachi usually slept as well. In the beginning he slept a lot, but less frequently as his recovery progressed, and now he was awake most of the day. Sometimes Itachi was fatigued and would fall asleep right after the nightly healing, and Sakura would sit up a while before the fire, thinking, or reading from her enormous medical tome. Sometimes he would sit with her and they would talk quietly about harmless, impersonal things late into the night. The next day it would repeat again.

After breakfast and their morning healing session, Sakura cleaned up the cabin while Itachi went to shower. By the time he came out she was bundled up in her outerwear and ready to go. "I should only be gone a few hours," she said. "Try not to burn the place down while I'm gone."

Itachi looked at her blankly for a moment, and she wondered if he'd taken her literally again or maybe he just didn't find it humorous…but then he smirked faintly. She had a feeling he was more amused by her attempt to play with him than by the joke itself. When it was clear Itachi wasn't going to say anything, she wrapped her long scarf twice around her neck and turned for the door. "I'm going, then," she said lightly, and headed out into the cold.

The snow hadn't yet covered the ground, and Sakura remembered the way easily. It took far less time on her own two feet at shinobi speed than it had in the wagon, and she figured she'd reach the town in just under an hour.

The forests and moors were even more beautiful under the dusting of snow, like something she'd once read in an old epic novel. Silent and wild and haunting, a place where ghosts roamed for eternity and creatures from the spirit world lured unwary travelers to their doom. Isolated in such a place with Itachi for so long, it almost felt as though the rest of the world didn't exist, as if they inhabited some twilit, in-between place…as if all that mattered was him and her, and the strange connection that had formed between them.

Sakura pushed the odd thoughts from her mind. Of course the rest of the world still existed, and all of its troubles and darkness would come to meet them soon enough.

The chakra burning through her limbs kept her relatively warm as well as increasing her speed, but when she reached the outskirts of Moyama she was flushed and winded. She hadn't trained or exercised since she left Konoha on her mission to Kumo, which was nearly three weeks ago, and she already noticed a difference in her stamina. She couldn't imagine how Itachi must feel, physically deteriorated so far from his former peak condition.

She slowed down so as not to alarm the watchman, and walked at an easy pace into town. Even before she passed under the spiked wooden gate, her senses were assaulted by civilization. The sounds of rolling wagon wheels and the clop of hooves on cobblestone, voices chattering and laughing, the clang of hammers on a tiled roof as a crew made last minute fixes before the coming winter. The smells of chimney smoke and cooking food, as well as the odor of manure, and people.

It was a little overwhelming and rather unpleasant after the clean, crisp smells and calming quiet of the forest. She ignored it as best she could—along with the stares of the villagers—and made her way to the general store. The owner's son, who'd carried her things before, was there and scrambled to assist her, managing to look both extremely shy and ridiculously eager at the same time. Sakura might have found it somewhat charming, but he smelled so strongly of tobacco that she had to fight the urge to recoil from him. He followed her around the store as she collected the needed items, giving her a strange look but thankfully remaining silent as she browsed the meager apparel section for men's clothing, trying to guess Itachi's size by comparison. Again, it was all paid for out of pocket, and she knew she wouldn't be able to refurbish their supplies much longer without another mission allowance.

When finished, she headed over to the clinic.

Halfway there she felt the presence of chakra and, instantly alert, stopped warily and looked around for the source. It occurred to her that if Akatsuki had come looking for their stray she probably didn't want to be seen by them, so she quickly ducked into a narrow alley between buildings and stilled, concealing her chakra exactly how Itachi had told her. It may be too late; if she had felt them, they had probably felt her. Pulse pounding, she concentrated on locating the signature and found it again after a moment. They were less than fifty meters away, somewhere down the street to her left, which would put them just outside Junko's clinic.

They were looking for Itachi…or for her.

Sakura peeked out around the corner to try to locate them, hoping desperately that she wouldn't see a red and black cloak. When she pinpointed the source of the chakra she exhaled sharply in relief, for what she saw was a dark green flak vest. A Konoha shinobi. She left her hiding place and approached him. He was a chuunin by the cut and shade of his vest, a low-level message runner. He was about to enter the clinic when she called out to him. "Looking for me?"

He turned, started, and jogged over to meet her. He was of average height and build, with sandy hair that could use a trim and a spattering of freckles across his tanned cheeks; cute in a boy-next-door sort of way, and she wondered how she hadn't seen him around before. Probably because he was always out of the village running messages.

"Haruno Sakura?"

"Yes." She assumed he'd brought her a letter from the Hokage, who wouldn't want to waste time sending it through the post. "Do you have a message for me?"

The messenger nodded, pulled a scroll from his pouch and handed it to her. Sakura quickly opened it and read the unencrypted contents.

_This must be discussed in person. Return alone to Konoha immediately. _

Her brow furrowed in concern as she reread the single line written in her shishou's hand. Return alone…she wasn't sure how to interpret that. The Hokage hadn't sent hunter-nin straight off, so that was a good sign, at least. "You came here alone?" she asked the runner. "No ANBU are following?"

He seemed confused by that, obviously having no idea of the details of his mission. "No…it's just me. I'm to deliver this scroll and accompany you back to Konoha."

Sakura nodded, and thought for a moment before replying, "I need to take care of a few things first. There's a pub down the road over there, inside the inn. I'll meet you there in…three hours."

Again he seemed bemused, probably wondering what she could possibly need that much time for in a place this small, but he nodded acceptingly and headed off in the direction she'd indicated.

Sakura went into the clinic. Junko was in the lobby and greeted her excitedly. "Sakura! It's nice to see you again so soon." Her smile faltered slightly. "Is everything all right?"

She drew up to the counter. "Everything's fine. I'm just here for a few supplies."

"There was a young man outside a moment ago in a ninja uniform. I think he's looking for you." Her expression tightened, and she lowered her voice. "I was a little worried he might be one of those dangerous people you mentioned might come sniffing around. He doesn't _look_ very dangerous, but you never can tell…"

"It's alright, he's from Konoha," she reassured. "I talked to him just now. He brought a message for me."

The doctor frowned slightly. "Seems an awful long way to travel just for a message."

"It was important." She wasn't about to explain in more detail, and though Junko obviously didn't understand the secret nature of shinobi operating procedure, she at least intuited enough not to probe further. Sakura pulled an empty pill bottle from the front pocket of her pack. "Could I get a refill of these multivitamins, please? And do you have any strong medicinal teas?"

"Of course, dear. Let's go to the back and get them for you," she said, indicating with a nod for Sakura to come with. They headed to the supply room, and Junko inquired about Itachi as she filled the empty bottle. "How is he doing?"

"Quite well, actually," Sakura said. "His coughing has decreased to only one or two episodes a day and there's rarely any blood, he's up and moving on his own and he can hold down solid food now." She smiled. "He's recovering rapidly."

"Amazing," Junko declared, shaking her head a little. "You're practically a miracle worker, my dear."

Sakura smiled proudly, but inside she hoped Junko was right, because it _did_ seem like it would take a miracle to accomplish everything she hoped to on her return to Konoha. She didn't stay any longer than necessary, thanking Junko once again for her help and making an excuse about not wanting to leave Itachi unattended for long.

There was no admiring the scenery this time as she ran full speed across the moors, back to the cabin in the foothills. It was true that she didn't like the idea of leaving Itachi alone out there. It wasn't that she was worried he would take off; she knew he was serious about the deal he'd made with her. She would be gone a week at the very least, and was concerned he wasn't physically well enough to be taking care of himself yet. But she had to go. She had to speak with the Hokage personally if there was any chance of rectifying the past, bringing the elders to justice, and clearing Itachi's name so that he could live out his new lease on life in peace.

As she passed the perimeter Sakura let her chakra leak a little so Itachi would sense her approach and not be alarmed. He wasn't. In fact, when she entered the cabin she found him sitting at the table, chin leaning against his palm, reading her monstrous medical encyclopedia, which she'd left out the night before.

She smirked at him. "Find anything interesting?"

"There is a rare disorder that gives people an insatiable urge to eat non-food substances such as dirt, glue, paper, and clay," he said, still reading, his tone slightly mystified. "There are also conditions that inexplicably cause the skin to be striped…or blue."

Sakura grinned, finding his utter seriousness rather amusing in this case. "Thinking of anyone in particular?"

He made a noncommittal sound, choosing not to comment further about that subject, and finally met her gaze. "Did you acquire everything you needed?"

She sat in the other chair. "I did." She rifled in her pack and removed the pills and tea tin, a few more miscellaneous purchases, and a bundle of dark, nondescript clothing. "It was hard to find anything that wasn't hideous," she said dryly. "These mountain people have no sense of fashion, apparently." Itachi just looked at her, somewhat amusedly. Sakura didn't notice. "It was even harder to find books, but I did come across this…" She pulled a dark-jacketed book from the pack and pushed it across the table toward him, finally looking up.

It was a modern copy of a famous ancient text, a treatise on military strategy and the arts of warfare. Sections of it were used in the written portion of the jounin exams, and Sakura even had a copy at home, though she'd admittedly never read much of it. "You've probably read it before," she said a little sheepishly.

"Many times," he said, facing the book his way and running long, slender fingers over the embossed cover. "But it never gets old."

"It was all I could find that wasn't a guide on hunting, fishing, or quilting. Well, there were also corny romance novels and, um, Icha Icha…but something told me you'd be even less interested in _those_. You said you liked history, military tactics and philosophy, and well, this kinda has all three, so…"

"Sakura," he said quietly, cutting off her awkward ramble. She looked up at him, a little unsure. A faint smile crossed his expression. "Thank you."

Sakura blushed. "No problem." Itachi continued to watch her with a strange expression, almost as if he'd just come to some conclusion about her. But of course, as usual, he wasn't inclined to share it. Flustered, she pretended to be occupied with removing a nonexistent speck from her coat sleeve.

Itachi had noticed already that she still wore her outerwear, and he could feel her preoccupied anxiety. "What is it?" he asked.

She met his gaze again. "I have to leave," she said almost ruefully.

Understanding crossed his features. "You've received word from Konoha." She nodded. "I didn't think it would arrive so quickly."

"It does when it's carried by a runner," she explained. "He's waiting for me back in town." She reached into her coat for the scroll and passed it to him.

Itachi read the one line directive without any visible reaction, but when he passed it back to her his dark eyes were troubled. "What do you think this means?"

Sakura shrugged faintly. "She didn't send hunters or give me instructions to kill you, so it's definitely not the worst I'd feared."

"Do you think you will face discipline for your impulsive actions?"

It had crossed her mind more than once. "I hope not," she said, sighing quietly. "Tsunade-sama trusts me. I think she just wants the details directly, and doesn't want to risk unsecure—and slow—correspondence."

Itachi accepted her answer as the most likely outcome. "You're leaving now?"

Sakura nodded, and after a moment of hesitation, stood. To her surprise, Itachi stood with her. "I should be back in about a week, if all goes well. Since I won't be here for healing sessions, take your medication twice a day instead of once, and drink the medicinal tea I brought three times a day. Make sure you keep the fire going and stay warm, and there's plenty of easily prepared food in the pantry—"

"I'll be fine, Sakura. I've kept myself alive for many years through this illness."

Her expression fell slightly, and he realized his mistake. If the look she was giving him was any indication, her next thought was probably: '…and we know how _that_ turned out.' Itachi really was grateful for her help, her expertise, her kindness, and so he quietly added, "I'm better today than I have been in months, thanks to you." Pacified by his quick recovery of what could have been an insulting comment, Sakura smiled softly.

The moment lengthened and his gaze intensified, leaving Sakura unnerved in a way that was entirely unrelated to fear. Hesitantly, Itachi reached out and brushed a stray strand of hair across her temple. His knuckles softly grazed her skin, and the slow, almost awkward action sent a fluttery jolt through her, familiar, but different somehow from what she knew of that feeling. Beyond surprised, she shifted uncertainly, her own body unsure whether it wanted to back away or move closer to him. Eventually her mind regained function and joined the debate, and '_back away'_ was the decided course of action. But there was no way for Itachi to mistake her withdrawal as distress or rejection, not with the shy, flustered smile on her lips.

Itachi seemed surprised by his own actions, and his arm dropped mechanically to his side. That studious expression returned, as though he'd just made a fascinating discovery.

"Um…I'll see you when I get back," she murmured, inwardly cringing at how lame she sounded. Still unable to erase or hide her smile, Sakura gathered her pack and walked out the door.

#

For a long minute after she'd gone, Itachi remained motionless, though his mind was far from still.

Why had he touched her? It was unplanned, which in itself was odd, as he almost never did anything impulsively. He'd been thinking how remarkable she was for facing such an enormous unknown head on, and somehow in the next moment his thoughts had shifted to how vibrantly colored she was; from her catlike, almost unnaturally green eyes, to her ridiculous but fascinating pink hair…and then he'd reached out to touch it. It was soft between his fingers, richly silken, and he'd had a passing thought that, had he been close enough, it would have smelled wonderful.

It was…attraction, he realized with a detached sort of wonder. It was such a foreign concept that it was actually rather amusing, and he smiled to himself. He had never been physically drawn to anyone before. Such things were useless and distracting in the life he had chosen to live, and so he'd never allowed those impulses to take precedence. Even having these thoughts now was a little disturbing, enough to experience an almost reflexive urge to wipe them from his mind.

Curious about the sudden resurgence of long-repressed notions, Itachi sat at the table, crossed his arms over his chest, and for once allowed himself to dwell on the matter.

Perhaps it was his newfound vitality that allowed his baser instincts to surface. He felt alive again. The cloud of depression and despair that had enveloped him as he lay dying in a remote nowhere, all his plans unfinished, all his hopes futile…had evaporated as though a fresh wind had blown through his life. With each new painless, untroubled breath, he felt his strength and sense of purpose returning.

Strange, then, that what his mind chose to focus on at such an important time was not the revival of his plans. He had to find his impetuous brother and make him see reason. That was not likely to be an easy task, as his brother was quite foolhardy. And then, together, they would destroy the one responsible for the ruin of both their lives. Itachi didn't have time for trivial, self-indulgent thoughts. Yet what mostly occupied his attention was not so much approaching these problems,but Sakura.

Itachi often found himself watching her, and had learned a lot about her that way; observing the way she moved, the way she appeared to organize in her mind before acting or speaking, doing everything with the utmost efficiency. That focus only slipped when she was flustered, embarrassed, or in danger of losing her temper, all of which he found weren't difficult to provoke in her with a choice word or action. Her emotions were easily manipulated, and it was rather amusing to do so, actually. He found her fascinating. Itachi was rarely interested in anyone on a personal level, yet he wanted to know more about her. With Sakura, he seemed unable to help it, and that was most unsettling.

Something had happened during those three nights when the fever nearly killed him. Something had passed between them, creating a strange sort of bond. Itachi was fairly certain it was because of the extensive, continuous transfer of her chakra into his cells, but his knowledge of medical ninjutsu did not extend far enough to be completely sure. He'd felt it the moment he awoke, on both a conscious and subconscious level. He'd felt that she no longer mistrusted him or feared being alone with him. He felt he understood her intentions, and therefore no longer mistrusted her. But the fact that they had so easily slipped into a comfortable familiarity was abnormal and disturbing—at least to him.

In addition to that, every time she touched him during their healing sessions, or when she assisted him in his embarrassing weaker moments, it was as if her chakra surged inside of him, through his pathways and along his skin in the places she touched, as if it longed to return to its source. He knew of chakra insertion as a tracking device, even as a way to gather information, but he knew this wasn't something she'd done on purpose. Sakura seemed just as unsettled by it, almost embarrassed. It was a nearly indescribable sensation, but not entirely unpleasant. Because of that, he'd made a deliberate effort not to touch her, and to not allow her to touch him unless necessary. Until today.

This outcome fell completely outside all his meticulous planning and assessments, and he was somewhat stunned to find himself here, with entirely new as he'd been when he'd chosen this path, he'd known what he was getting himself into, and had orchestrated everything to play out in a way that ultimately left him some modicum of control.

Itachi had only ever thought about saving Sasuke, never about saving himself. He had fully expected to die. He had _wanted_ to. He had never once calculated the possibility that his life might one day be his own to do with as he pleased.

He had never anticipated _this_, that in his final, bleakly inglorious hour, this kunoichi—barely more than a girl—would come along and singlehandedly save his life. All she had known of him was what the world knew, and yet she had been willing to take an enormous risk, a leap of faith that he hadn't earned and didn't deserve from her, and had agreed to help him, going out to the middle of nowhere alone with a notorious criminal whom she had every right to suspect would kill her in the end. At first, he thought she might be a fool and a failure of a shinobi to be so careless, but he'd quickly realized she was too capable and intelligent to have not known exactly what she may be facing, and had taken the risk anyway. She was truly a surprising and remarkable person.

Sakura was spirited, exceptionally intelligent, and possessed a natural charm despite the temper he'd caught glimpses of when he didn't let her have her way so easily. And she was, if he allowed himself to reflect on it, strikingly beautiful. Itachi was never interested in anything typical or standardized. Sakura's exotic features, her coloring and slender, elegant form were far more alluring than the doll-like faces and voluptuous figures desired by so many men. Though he had learned to repress it over the years, Itachi was only human, just a man, and increasingly wondered about the possibility of acting on these newly rediscovered impulses.

A part of him was beginning to find her quite irresistible. It was as if something inside of him had been inflamed by her, almost from the moment he met her. Another thing he found somewhat alarming.

Itachi always planned ahead, always examined all likely outcomes. This situation was no different. As much as it might be premature to think about, not knowing what Konoha would ultimately decide, he still couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he were allowed to live quietly in exile…or if he were to be pardoned, as Sakura so adamantly supported. What would he do with the rest of his life?

However, there was almost no chance of that outcome. Sakura's enthusiasm was admirable in its own way, but it was also naïve, fueled by compassion and not entirely thought out. A hard fact she would learn soon enough. The Hokage wasn't going to tell her what she wanted to hear. There was no point in thinking of a future which wouldn't happen.

At any rate, it was probably all nothing. It was likely just the abundance of her chakra in his system that made him feel so drawn to her, that made her react to him in that way. Merely a chemical reaction that would fade and disappear in time as her energy was replaced by his own. She would be gone for the next several days; perhaps the physical distance would clarify the issue.

With a rare sigh, Itachi stood and walked slowly to the window, watched the snow fall lightly to the earth. Sakura's tracks were nearly covered. Itachi couldn't remember having ever felt lonely, indeed he enjoyed solitude. But over the last two weeks he had come to find her company enjoyable. He was accustomed to her presence, and surprisingly, now found himself thinking that the coming week would be long and boring without her there to talk to him.

* * *

The third journey across the wilderness that day was a blur as Sakura cleared her mind of everything but the mechanics of running, unwilling to dwell on what might happen once she arrived in Konoha, and afraid to think about what had happened in those final moments with Itachi.

She met the chuunin runner at the pub as promised and waited with a strange mixture of impatience and procrastination as he finished his meal. She was extremely nervous about her meeting with Tsunade, and so of course she was naturally inclined to delay. But at the same time, sitting there in the pub with nothing to do but think about the events of the last hour while the locals gawked at them made her particularly eager to get moving so she could zone out again.

She learned the runner's name was Shinji. He was a few years older and seemed nice enough; they talked a little about general things relating to ninja life: 'What year did you graduate?' 'Who was your sensei?' He already seemed to know a lot about her, which wasn't much of a surprise; that's what happened when your team was infamous and you were the apprentice of the Hokage.

Sakura decided to join him in a meal. It was sort of necessary, since she'd run a total of about forty-five miles in just under five hours and her chakra was over half depleted. She'd been pushing herself hard for the past couple weeks and it had taken more of a toll on her than she'd realized. She could really use a nap, she thought, and then realized that having a midday rest each day had spoiled her. The house stew was just as good as Junko had said, and once they were both fueled and ready, they left for Konoha.

The three-day journey home was mostly uneventful. They ran each morning until noon, stopped for lunch, then ran until sunset when they would stop in a town for the night. The weather warmed considerably as they left Lightning and traveled south, and by noon the second day Sakura's winter coat was stowed in her pack. She'd left her sleeping bag back at the cabin, so she was glad Shinji had a travel allowance that afforded them both single rooms at night. Her traveling companion was pleasant if not terribly exciting company, and they made good time, reaching the towering green gates of Hidden Leaf by late afternoon the third day.

Moving to the checkpoint inside the gates, Sakura wasn't surprised to find that Izumo and Kotetsu had been on alert for her, and were waving her over urgently.

"Hokage-sama left orders for you to go immediately to her office," said Izumo.

"She seemed awfully intense about it, even for her. You haven't done something naughty have you, Sakura-chan?" Kotetsu asked slyly.

"Maybe…I guess we'll see," she returned, smirking. The two aides always flirted with her, but it was harmless; they were notorious for flirting with anything with breasts. Except for the Hokage, which they obviously understood would promptly get them tossed out her fourth-storey office window.

Izumo glanced around her and acknowledged the runner with a tilt of his chin. "'Sup, Shinji. You know the drill: report in as usual."

Shinji nodded and gave a short wave to Sakura. "It was nice getting to know you a little, Sakura-san."

"You too. And I told you, Shinji: it's just Sakura."

He grinned at her. "Right. Well, see you around."

"See ya." She waved amiably as he leapt to the nearest rooftop and disappeared from sight.

"He 'got to know you a little,' eh?" Kotetsu teased, winking at her.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Do you have to inject your perversities into every possible situation?"

He slapped his hand over his heart in mock hurt. "Sakura-chan! I'm just trying to figure out what your type is, since you already rejected both of us," he said, jerking his thumb at his partner.

"Yeah…what exactly _is_ your type?" Izumo joined in, grinning impishly.

She tried unsuccessfully to preventthe image of a tall, dark-haired, smoldery-eyed man who'd run his fingers so softly through her hair from coming to mind. "I don't have a type," she said flatly. "What I _do_ have is an urgent meeting with the Hokage that I need to get to right away. Unless you want me to explain to her that I was delayed here with the two of you, discussing things that are none of your business?"

Both men sobered at the idea, and Izumo exaggeratedly waved her through. "Proceed."

Sakura laughed under her breath, and set off toward the Hokage tower.

The weather was balmy and the afternoon sun shone pleasantly on her face and shoulders. She had missed the temperate climate of her homeland. But as she moved through the streets of Konoha, she couldn't help thinking about the things Itachi had revealed to her, about the twisted corruption at the village's foundations and the depraved intrigue its leaders had embraced in order to cover it up. Almost no one living here had any idea what horrible truths lay hidden in dark corners andlocked away under official seals. If they did, maybe, like her, they wouldn't be able to look at their village quite the same way anymore.

Sakura was determined to expose the truth and see the elders pay for their past crimes, but she was a medic and a soldier, not a politician. She had no idea how to make it right; she just knew something had to be done. She needed the Hokage's help, and hoped Tsunade would not only understand and see it her way, but that her more world-wise shishou would know how to handle the scandalous situation that was potentially devastating to Konoha's political and social infrastructure.

As she rounded a corner and the tall red building loomed ahead, Sakura's nerves returned. She'd practiced what she would say again and again on the trip back, but not knowing what sort of reception she would receive filled her with anxiety. Was Tsunade angry with her? What if the Hokage, not yet knowing what Sakura knew, told Danzou or the other elders and one or all of them were there? That outcome was unlikely, she knew, as Tsunade personally loathed and distrusted all three of them, and habitually excluded them from every decision she possibly could.

When Sakura reached the reception area on the top floor, Shizune looked up from behind a massive stack of files on her desk and smiled at her fellow apprentice. "Welcome back, Sakura. Go right in." Pleasantries were a good sign. Shizune usually knew what was up, and interacting with her first was a good indicator of what sort of mood the Hokage was in, and what to expect when entering that office. She took a deep breath and pushed open the heavy double doors.

Sakura was slightly surprised to find the Godaime already occupied. Shikamaru's voice trailed off as she walked in and both he and the Hokage looked her way. Tsunade's expression intensified when she saw Sakura.

"Ah. You're finally here. Take a seat." She glanced at her chief tactics officer. "Out," she said bluntly. "We'll continue later."

Shikamaru couldn't have looked more beleaguered if he'd tried. He straightened and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Right," he muttered flatly. "Because the report I worked on all morning isn't important at all."

As he passed her, Sakura sent him a small, apologetic smile. "Hey, Shika."

"Hey," he greeted unenthusiastically.

"Shut the door on your way out," the Hokage added.

From behind, Sakura heard a long, harried sigh, and a moment later, the doors clicked shut quietly.

Now that they were alone, the ominous weight of the information they both knew Sakura was there to deliver filled the air between them. The Godaime sat behind her massive desk and rested her chin on her interlaced fingers, fixing an expectant amber stare on her apprentice.

"Alright, Sakura. Tell me everything."

* * *

Next Chapter: _The Mission_


	7. The Mission

Vespertine now has artwork! The links are on my profile—be sure to check them out!

* * *

**Vespertine**

Chapter Seven: The Mission

* * *

_The world seems not the same_

_Though I know nothing has changed_

_It's all my state of mind_

_I can't leave it all behind_

* * *

Sakura told the Hokage everything, expanding upon what she'd only touched on in her letter. She related how she'd come upon Itachi by accident in Moyama, went to his room expecting from Junko's description to find Sasuke, only to get the surprise of her life to discover his notorious, supposedly dead older brother. She gave the details of his illness and his pitiful state. She explained again how Itachi had bargained with her, first offering to provide information on Sasuke's whereabouts in exchange for a medical evaluation, and then furthering the deal by asking her to heal him to the best of her ability, for which he would help Konoha bring Sasuke in.

"Obviously I was skeptical," she said. "I had no idea whether he intended to keep his word, or if he even knew anything at all. But I knew I couldn't just walk away from a chance to bring Uchiha Itachi under _some_ form of custody, so I agreed. If he _was_ telling the truth, it was a chance Konoha couldn't pass up."

"I agree," Tsunade said. "But you took an enormous risk in doing this without sending for backup first. For all you knew he could have intended to kill you."

"I was aware of that," she acknowledged. "But there was no time to wait for backup. He wouldn't have lived that long. At any rate, he was too weak to actually harm me, and I was fully prepared to keep him sedated and weakened until he was fit for transport to Konoha, but it turned out to be unnecessary."

Sakura went on, relating events the Hokage didn't know about, what happened after the encrypted letter was sent. She talked about the three-day fever episode and how close Itachi had come to dying, how she had barely managed to keep him alive. She didn't mention the chakra bond, but Tsunade studied her very keenly at that point, and probably suspected what had happened. No one had more experience in medical ninjutsu than her master. But Sakura left those personal unsettling details out of her report.

What she did relay was how the very same day he awoke from the near-comatose state, he offered the information he'd promised, much sooner than Sakura had expected. She explained in close detail what Itachi had revealed to her, recalling almost verbatim the ugly truths surrounding Konoha's founding, the story of Uchiha Madara and what he planned to do to Konoha and the entire shinobi world. Then she talked about the massacre, and the room became very quiet and tense as the truth of that night and what led to it was fully disclosed.

Tsunade listened to it all with a stony intensity. There was a heavy silence between them after Sakura finished. Finally, the Hokage leaned into her high-backed chair, crossed her arms over her chest and said plainly, "Well. That was certainly more informative than the version I heard."

Sakura's eyes widened and her mouth fell open, momentarily stunned. "…You _knew_?"

The older woman shrugged slightly. "I'm a Senju, Sakura; the Shodai was my grandfather. Of course I know about the rivalry and bad blood between our clans. I know why Madara turned against the village, and it's been rumored for some time that he was still alive, causing trouble for us. I didn't know he was the real leader of Akatsuki, though it makes sense now…"

"And what about Itachi?"

Tsunade sighed quietly, her expression sobering. "I knew about the massacre and Itachi's true role, as well. The elders don't know that I know, of course."

Sakura was honestly a little indignant. "Shishou…if you knew already then why did you order me to rush home like it was an emergency?"

"Because I wanted to hear it directly from you, which in essence is hearing it directly from Itachi." She gave her student a shrewd, appraising look. "I trust you haven't left anything out…"

"Of course not," she said, keeping her expression carefully controlled. No one needed to know her personal business. It didn't affect her sense of duty, so it shouldn't matter.

"Well," Tsunade continued, uncrossing her arms to drum her long red fingernails lightly on the desk, "then it seems Itachi _did_ leave something out."

"What do you mean?"

"What he didn't tell you was that he never stopped being a double agent. I'm sure you heard Jiraiya mention his contact in Akatsuki a few times..."

She blinked in surprise, but suddenly certain things made a lot more sense. "It was _him_?"

The Hokage nodded. "Yes, but presumably he doesn't know that anyone but Jiraiya knew about it. Jiraiya told me everything a few years ago, just after Itachi showed up in Konoha. If you remember, there was an incident with Kakashi, Kurenai, and Gai. Following that,Sasuke took off after Itachi, and there was _another_ incident in the hotel where Jiraiya and Naruto were staying."

"How could I forget," she said sourly. That incident was what eventually triggered the fight on the hospital rooftop, where Sakura, terrified that her teammates would kill each other, had tried to intervene only to nearly be killed _herself_ by their reckless aggression. She had never learned from either of them what really happened at that hotel. Only a few days later Sasuke left Konoha for good, and Naruto soon after for his training with Jiraiya. Kakashi was still recovering from his fight with Itachi, and she was left alone. So in a roundabout way, she supposed Itachi was responsible for the collapse of Team Seven. Consequently, that meant he was also sort of responsible for her growth as a shinobi, for causing the situation that led to her desperately pleading with Tsunade to apprentice her.

Tsunade continued, interrupting her thoughts, "Itachi was supposedly after Naruto on behalf of Akatsuki, and he had a clear chance to take him that day, but he stalled by fighting with Sasuke long enough for Jiraiya to arrive and pose a feigned threat, and then Itachi and his partner retreated. Similarly, he didn't do any real damage when he was in Konoha, and fled the moment he was faced with a serious fight."

He'd been avoiding doing harm to any Konoha shinobi, or more likely, he'd been keeping his partner, Hoshigake Kisame, from hurting or killing anyone. Sakura was a little resentful of the fact that he'd hospitalized Kakashi after using the Sharingan to torture him, but tactically she understood that if the elite Copy Ninja hadn't been fully incapacitated, Itachi wouldn't have been able to avoid bloodshed. "What was he doing in Konoha in the first place?"

"Apparently his appearance had nothing to do with Naruto," Tsunade answered. "Around that time, Sasuke's curse-seal was nearly out of control, and there was some talk among the council of doing away with him before he snapped and accidentally killed someone. Itachi somehow learned of this and showed up to make a statement; that he was still alive and still a threat to those responsible for the massacre, that Sasuke was still under his protection." The Hokage sighed and shook her head. "I have to hand it to him: he's a master of espionage. I wanted to somehow make contact with him after Jiraiya died, but he was reported dead himself only a few weeks later. I was shocked; I didn't think Sasuke would have been capable of killing him. But nobody knew Itachi was sick."

"Even with Itachi being deathly sick, Sasuke still couldn't kill him," Sakura said. "Itachi said he collapsed due to exhaustion and overstraining himself in his weakened condition. Sasuke was never able to confirm his death, which probably means he collapsed as well, before Madara took him in."

"That doesn't surprise me. Itachi was always a phenomenal shinobi. When I heard the news, I was honestly disappointed at such a waste of a brilliant and talented life. I'm truly glad he's alive. I think it's incredible that you found him, and we're unbelievably fortunate that he's still willing to work with us after everything. That man has so much information…he truly could help us bring down both Akatsuki and Madara once and for all."

Sakura agreed with her mentor wholeheartedly, but she couldn't get past her almost casual dismissal of the events surrounding Itachi's exile. "What about the enemies _inside_ the village? How could you just let them go free?" she demanded heatedly, displaying a rare, almost Naruto-like breach of formality.

The Hokage sent her a reproving glare. "Because it's not as simple as you want it to be, Sakura," she said curtly. "Believe me, if it was I'd have had them in chains the moment I found out about it. However, I can't just arrest them. What they did was horrible and wrong on many levels but the fact remains it was a sanctioned order given by the Third. They did nothing illegal. Even if I _could_ have them arrested, I'd have to explain _why_, and the resulting scandal would cause civil unrest. The people of Konoha would lose faith in its leadership. Or didn't you think of that?"

She _had_ thought about it, and she understood what her mentor was saying, but she still couldn't accept it. "So you're going to do _nothing_?"

"Why do you think I've shut them out of every decision regarding this village?" she countered sharply. "I've been watching Danzou ever since I took office, and for the last six months he's been under twenty-four hour surveillance. He's up to something, and when I find out what it is I'll bring him down and take great personal pleasure in it. As for Homura and Koharu…I'm trying to find a way to force them into a very quiet and obscure retirement. But it has to be done discreetly."

"More cloak and dagger…" Sakura muttered bitterly.

Tsunade sighed. "You've been my assistant long enough to have realized that politics and government aren't always as simple as right and wrong."

"They should be," she retorted bluntly, not caring how naïve, or how insolent she sounded.

"Unrealistic as that is, I sometimes wish it too."

"With Naruto it will be different," Sakura said resolutely.

Tsunade smiled knowingly. "I hope so. If anyone can find a way to change the way our world works, it's him."

Despite her defiant declaration of hope, Sakura couldn't bring herself to feel positive as the full extent of the situation became clear to her. "If the truth about the massacre can't be brought to light, then Itachi's name can't be cleared…" she said dejectedly.

It helped somewhat that her mentor seemed to share her disappointment. "As much as I want to pardon him and let him come back to Konoha, as much as his knowledge and skills would be a tremendous advantage to regain, it's not possible at this time. Not until we can find some other way to explain his circumstances."

Sakura was silent for a while, disillusioned and frustrated. She forced herself to look at the positives. Itachi was a valuable agent under deep cover, not a criminal at all. There would be no punishment, no death sentence. That, at least, was a great consolation. They could move forward with hope. "So what do I do now?"

"You mentioned the dramatic improvement in his condition after you began treatment. What is your overall opinion? Can you fully heal him?"

At that, Sakura had to smile a little. "I believe I can, yes. He's recovering so quickly. At worst, his life will be prolonged a few more years. At best, a complete cure."

Tsunade smiled as well, pleased by the prognosis. "Excellent. Then I want you to go back to him and finish what you started. Do your best. I'm making this an official mission, extended as long as necessary. It isn't secure to correspond in writing, but we can communicate through Katsuyu. I'll contact you every few weeks for a briefing. You answer to no one but me. Once Itachi is able, he will hold up his end of the deal by helping Team Kakashi find Uchiha Sasuke and ensure one way or another that he will no longer be a threat to Konoha."

Sakura was a little startled by the dire implication, but not entirely surprised. It was a possible outcome she had long been prepared for. "I understand," she said evenly. "And what happens after that? For Itachi, I mean. From what you're saying, it could be a long time before we can find a way to reinstitute him without a scandal…what's going to happen to him once this is over?"

Tsunade's eyes narrowed a fraction, studying her student. "I can't say right now. It's too early to know how these events will play out, at any rate."

It wasn't a satisfying answer, but Sakura had no choice but to accept it. The Hokage reached into the topmost drawer of her desk and removed a large scroll.

"What is it?" she asked, taking the scroll as it was passed to her.

"The destination half of a chakra-link teleportation jutsu. Activate it and it will notify whoever is bound to the other end that you need them, and they can then teleport to your location," Tsunade explained, her expression becoming grave. "Itachi is a critical target to a lot of people, all of them extremely dangerous. If Akatsuki, Madara, or even Danzou learn of his existence and whereabouts, you can be sure they will come for him. This scroll will send you immediate backup."

"Who is my backup?"

"Some of the few shinobi capable of handling such a threat," the Hokage said, smirking. "Your teammates."

Sakura couldn't help feeling on edge at the idea of an all-out battle against such enemies, but it eased her mind to know her boys would be there if she needed them. She smiled faintly.

"I'd like to take some supplies back with me," she said after a moment. "There's only so much I can find in that little village."

"Talk to Shizune on your way out; she'll get you whatever you need, including a mission allowance."

Sakura nodded and rose, eager to get things done so she could go home and relax for a while.

"There's something else you need to know. About Sasuke."

The ominous tone made her stomach tighten, and she warily sat down again.

"You already know that he's been in contact with Uchiha Madara since his fight with Itachi. It now appears that under Madara's influence, Sasuke has joined Akatsuki."

Sakura felt as if her stomach had dropped through the floor. "_What?_"

The Hokage nodded grimly. "He and his current team of fellow missing-nin, all wearing Akatsuki cloaks, attacked and kidnapped the eight-tail jinchuuriki. It was witnessed by several Cloud nins. If he's that far under Madara's control, assuming he knows the truth about the massacre and his brother, it's very likely he intends to return to Konoha for vengeance."

Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sasuke attacking a jinchuuriki and handing him over to Akatsuki? Attacking Konoha? Had he completely forgotten where he came from and who he was? Didn't he care about what Akatsuki was trying to do? Had he forgotten _Naruto_? Rage and disappointment bubbled up inside of her. If anything had been in reach, she would have shattered it. "That _stupid_ bastard!"

"There's more." Tsunade had fully expected the outburst, and continued without qualm when Sakura fixed angry, incredulous eyes on her. "The jinchuuriki they captured is the Raikage's brother, and Kumo is up in arms. I've received a formal letter." She paused a moment, gave her student a long, pointed look. "I'll warn you here and now, Sakura: the Raikage is demanding justice. After all he's done, allowing Sasuke back into Konoha may not be possible."

Sakura exhaled sharply, put her spinning head in her hands. "Naruto will kill him first…this is _beyond_ betrayal. Why does he have to fuck up _everything_?" A thought occurred to her, and she raised her head and scowled. "None of this would have happened if Sasuke had been told the truth in the first place."

"You're probably right, but no one knew he intended to abandon Konoha and chase Itachi to the ends of the earth. If I'd known the little fool was going to run off, I would have told him myself. But what's done is done, and we all have to live with the consequences of our actions. Sasuke is not above that. If the Raikage demands his death or imprisonment…to prevent war I will have to allow it."

Sakura didn't argue. In fact, she was a little surprised to realize she didn't _have_ an argument. She didn't disagree, and at the moment she was hurt and angry enough to believe Sasuke really _did_ deserve to pay for all the hurt and betrayal he'd invoked on people—especially people who cared for him and had shed blood, sweat and tears to help him!

She didn't voice her thoughts aloud to the Hokage, instead simply asked, "Does Naruto know?"

"Yes, and as you can imagine, he didn't take it well. He's on a mission with Sai and Yamato, and they're under instruction to ensure he doesn't make any…irrational decisions. He'll be fine; we'll make sure of it. You're to leave again in the morning."

Sakura rose again, and moodily walked to the door. Tsunade called out to her. "…In light of these events your mission is now a critical priority. Itachi may be our best chance to prevent this disaster. I'm counting on you."

She forced a small, tight-lipped smile. "I won't let you down, Shishou."

"I know you won't. And Sakura?" Tsunade fixed her with a perceptive stare. "I know this is putting a lot of pressure on you, and sometimes the effects of such strain can be intense and…unexpected. Promise me you'll be careful."

Sakura knew her mentor wasn't talking about exhaustion or chakra strain. Her smile this time was a little more heartfelt. "I will."

* * *

The sun had set by the time Sakura entered her house. She kicked her boots off and fell onto her couch with a heavy sigh, physically and mentally drained. However, her mind was too full to truly relax.

She missed Naruto and wished he were home. They could have raged and lamented together over a bowl or three of ramen; it always seemed to help when it came to things like this. He must be devastated. She was _so_ angry at Sasuke, and wished he were there before her so she could throttle him. Did he intend to fight against them again, this time to the death? Did he plan to help Akatsuki kidnap and suck the soul out of the man who'd been his best friend?

Sakura would kill him herself before she let that happen.

The likelihood that Sasuke had changed into someone completely different from their once-teammate and that he might be lost to them forever was something she'd reconciled long ago, but this new turn of events had opened the wound afresh, and now she was filled with the familiar hurt she thought she was long over. Her insides twisted bitterly, but her eyes remained dry; she would never cry over him again.

She thought of Itachi suddenly. It had been nearly four days since she'd left him. Was he okay? Was he taking his meds? Eating enough? Sleeping properly? He was a grown man and could take care of himself, she knew, but she couldn't help but worry. His wellbeing had become extremely important to her. She was anxious to return, and not entirely for medical, mission-related reasons, though she refused to think of it in terms of 'missing' him.

Unbidden, the memory of their last moments together surfaced in her mind—the feel of his fingertips softly moving through her hair, his knuckles ghosting over her skin, the intensity in his dark eyes that caused her insides to tighten in the most strangely pleasant way….

Sakura was glad there was no one around to see her blushing.

Whatever was happening between them had her confused and excited and afraid all at once. A few weeks ago she had seriously debated killing him. Was it the chakra connection that had broken down those barriers of distrust and fear? Or was it the fact that Itachi was nothing like his reputation, and she saw him in a completely different light now?

They still barely knew each other. That was changing little by little, day by day, but sometimes he was so reserved she felt she'd gladly give an A-ranked paycheck just to know what he was thinking. He was like his brother in that regard, only whereas Sasuke was taciturn and deliberately held others at arm's length, Itachi seemed more naturally introverted. There was no attitude behind his silences; he just wasn't much of a talker. When he did open up, she found him to be interesting and likeable. She enjoyed his company.

But was she really…attracted to him? There was no denying he was easy on the eyes, and that was putting it mildly. Even a devastating, fatal illness hadn't been able to completely quash his almost ridiculous good looks. On top of that, he had a presence that commanded notice, even when he seemed not to want it. It amazed her how such a quiet person could be so intense. And the way he looked at her at times…

Did his actions as they parted indicate he was also attracted to her? Was he thinking about her while she was gone, as she was thinking about him? Would something like that moment happen again between them? Did she want it to?

Sakura shook her head roughly. This was _not_ what she should be thinking about right now. There were far more important things happening than…whatever it was with Itachi.

For example, how was she going to tell him what she'd learned today? A cold, sinking feeling filled her at the thought of informing him of the depths of his brother's betrayal. She imagined he would react with the same stoic control he usually displayed…but she had learned that inside he was far from unfeeling. He would be disappointed…maybe even angry. He certainly had cause to be; Sasuke's actions were a complete disregard for everything Itachi had fought and given his life for.

Sakura began to brood again, but was soon interrupted by a knock at the door; three light, rhythmic taps she recognized at Ino's signature knock. The chakra signature confirmed it was indeed her longtime friend and sometimes rival. Sakura was tired and grumpy and wasn't sure she really wanted to talk to the busybody right now, but knowing Ino, she wouldn't go away until let in. With a sigh, she forced herself up and went to open the door.

"Sakura!" the blonde exclaimed. "I was at my parents' for dinner and I saw the light on. When did you get back?"

"I'm not really back."

Ino gave her a look. "So you're just a figment of my imagination?"

"I mean I'm leaving again in the morning. I just came back for a briefing," she explained.

"Well that sucks. What kind of crappy mission did you get stuck with this time?" Without waiting for an invitation, she stepped over the threshold and forced Sakura into a light hug.

"Ino, it's not a good time," Sakura began tiredly, "I still have things to do and I want to get some sleep tonight…"

Ino brushed her off with a wave and seated herself on the couch. "Come on, Sakura, it's been way too long since we hung out. Who knows when we'll have another chance to catch up?"

It was true, she supposed, and Ino _was_ her closest girlfriend—bad sense of timing or not. Sakura resigned herself and went to join her.

"So, what's your mission about? I know it's either really important or really boring; you've been gone for ages."

"It's a special assignment for the Hokage," she said vaguely. Ino knew she was hedging and just stared at her, finely arched eyebrows raised expectantly. Sakura suppressed a sigh. "I can't talk about it."

"Ooh?" Aqua eyes lit up at the idea of intrigue. "I take back what I said about boring and crappy, then. Go on—you can tell your best friend…"

Sakura snorted. "So you can tell everyone else?"

Ino pretended offense. "I can keep quiet when it matters!"

Sakura laughed incredulously. "No you can't! I really can't talk about it."

"Fine, fine," Ino said airily. "Well whatever it is it must be something major, because you seem different."

"Different _how_?" she demanded, frowning slightly.

Ino shrugged. "I dunno…older, maybe. But in the good way," she amended quickly, seeing Sakura's scowl. "You have this…vibe. It's weird. You also look happier," she added slyly, smirking.

"I don't see how that's possible. I'm actually in a pretty lousy mood right now."

"I meant in a general sense. Did you meet a guy?"

A scoff, accompanied by a frown to discourage anymore talk of that nature. Ino's perceptiveness annoyed her, and she honestly didn't know what to make of her comment. She seemed happier? Did spending time with Itachi…make her happy? The idea was absurdly confusing, and so she chose to disregard it completely.

"So what's bothering you, anyway?"

"Another thing I can't talk about. I'm alright though, just…irritated."

Ino sighed. "Jeez, you're just full of secrets lately, aren't you? I'll get them out of you sooner or later." In her customary habit of rapidly switching gears, she went on, "Speaking of secrets…I was working at the shop the other day, and guess what I heard…"

Sakura listened to her prattle on about who was sleeping with whom and other village gossip, actually listening for once in order to prevent herself from dwelling on things she'd rather not acknowledge. After a while Ino suggested they watch an old romantic comedy on TV and despite her weariness, Sakura agreed. They laughed and gave silly commentary about the film while devouring an entire basket of persimmons Ino's mother had picked from her garden. It felt good to do something mindless and easy for once, and Sakura actually enjoyed herself. By the time Ino left, she was in a fairly pleasant mood, most of her anger and anxiety forgotten.

Alone again, Sakura began to pack. Before coming home, she'd gone shopping with her mission allowance, buying clothes for Itachi that she assumed would suit him better than what he had, as well as grocery items she was unlikely to find in Moyama—mainly snacks and sweets. She packed a box of her favorite tea, her own shampoo, as well as her own laundry soap with fabric softener—the powdered stuff she'd found in the cabin was awful. She ensured she had clothes for the harsher climate; pants and sweaters—including her favorite oversized navy blue hoodie she'd stolen from Naruto, and a pair of fur-lined winter boots that she loved but almost never had a chance to wear.

She found a storage scroll, similar to the one that held her giant encyclopedia, and began loading it with things that weren't needed but definitely wanted for a long stay indoors during winter: books, a deck of cards, a shogi board, and her medical journal; she'd made several discoveries while healing Itachi and she wanted to record them, and had a few more ideas she wanted to try if he'd let her. On top of those things, she added whatever wouldn't fit easily in her backpack. For good measure, she added a couple blankets, a few more everyday items she didn't want to be without, and once satisfied, sealed it all up in the scroll for easy transport.

It was still early by Sakura's standards but she was already tired and also wanted to leave as early as possible the next morning. Her bed was big and comfy and inviting after two weeks of sleeping on a military cot and she fell on it with a loud, exaggerated sigh, throwing an arm over her eyes. She spent the next several minutes in dark, welcome silence, and was on the edge of sleep when her senses prickled, alerting her to the presence of someone on her windowsill.

"Kaka-sensei, what the hell are you doing in my bedroom?" she demanded flatly, without opening her eyes.

She heard the faint brush of feet touching her floor as he invited himself in further. "I came to visit my favorite student, of course," he replied affably.

Sakura rolled her eyes a little and sat up, fixing her gaze on the tall, lanky form with a shock of silver hair outlined by moonlight. "I assume Tsunade-shishou has told you, then."

"Mm."

He sat at the foot of her bed. Sakura clicked on the bedside light and scooted next to him. As usual his presence was unruffled and calm, which now that she thought about it, reminded her a little of someone else. "Weren't you surprised?"

"Yes and no. I've learned never to take anything at face value in our world." He seemed to be thinking, and it was a moment before he continued. "Uchiha Itachi…I've said before that I can't beat him, and those times when we met in combat he could have killed me, as well as anyone else that went up against him…but he didn't. There was always an air of pacifism about him that I thought was strange…but it makes sense now."

"He never fought to kill," Sakura mused quietly. "He never took Naruto when he had a chance, even the one time he was alone with him."

"I knew him a little in ANBU," Kakashi said, glancing at her. "He was one of the most skilled and dedicated commanders the ops has ever seen. He's still highly respected there to this day among veterans who remember him, though of course no one ever talks about it openly. Despite his reputation for complex tactics and ruthless efficiency, no one saw it coming. No one thought he was capable of what he did, and truthfully there are still some who doubt the story."

Sakura's eyes widened slightly at this information, Kakashi smiled ironically beneath his mask.

"ANBU operatives know enough about covert assignments and cover-ups to not buy so easily into an explanation that makes no sense."

Sakura smiled. It was good to know that Itachi wasn't regarded as a monster by _everyone_, that there were at least a few who would support and welcome him if… She looked up at her team leader. "Tsunade said the truth about him can't be revealed for the sake of the village, that some other explanation would have to be found first. Do you think he'll ever be able to come back to Konoha?"

Kakashi regarded her a long moment. "I don't know," he said at length, "I suppose anything's possible. After everything that's happened, he may not want to."

Sakura was slightly taken aback by that idea, but knew it was a likely possibility. She hadn't talked to Itachi about that yet, not until there was a more concrete idea of what to expect in the future. Kakashi was still studying her, his dark eye narrowed perceptively; an expression with which she was quite familiar. "What?"

"Do _you_ want him to come back?" he asked mildly.

"…Of course," she said levelly. "He doesn't deserve to live in exile."

"Hm. Is that the only reason?"

"What does _that_ mean?"

Kakashi gave a faint shrug. "You seem pretty…fond of him. You know…attached."

"I'm not _attached_. Wholly dedicating yourself to another person's survival leaves a pretty deep imprint…at least for a while," she explained succinctly. "Though I'll admit…he's not at all how I expected him to be."

Sakura hated when he looked at her like that, like he knew what was going on better than she did. "I like him. As a person. There, are you happy?"

Kakashi just smiled at her, visible eye crinkling. "I'm happy if you're happy."

Sakura sighed. "You can be really annoying sometimes, you know that?"

"That really hurts my feelings, Sakura."

Sakura laughed faintly. "You're a bad liar, too."

"Remember when you used to respect me?"

"Whatever gave you _that_ idea?"

By now a full grin had spread across her features, and she could tell Kakashi shared it beneath his mask. They sat in companionable silence for a minute, and then Kakashi pulled the other half of the teleportation scroll from his vest.

He tapped it against his palm. "Hopefully we won't need to use this, so I doubt I'll see you for a while."

Once again she felt relieved that her teammates would be there if she needed them. If all went well she wouldn't, and she would miss them. "Tell Naruto…" She trailed off and a short, humorless laugh escaped her. "Gods, I don't even know…"

Kakashi gave a barely perceptible nod. "He knows," he said, clasping her shoulder reassuringly. "Things will work out somehow. I have faith in my teammates."

Sakura gave him a small, grateful smile. "Thanks, Sensei."

He stood silently, returned the scroll to his pocket, and reached down to playfully ruffle her hair. "Night, Sakura-chan."

Then he vanished in a puff of smoke, and after another moment, Sakura crawled back into bed and tried to get some sleep. There was a long journey ahead of her tomorrow.

* * *

Next chapter: _The Conflict_


	8. The Conflict

**Vespertine**

Chapter Eight: The Conflict

* * *

_There is something in your eyes_

_Flowing them over_

_Stealing all the harmony which lives in me_

_Your hands are covering my tears_

* * *

It took three days of hurried travel to reach Moyama. Sakura was anxious the whole way, concerned about Itachi and how he'd fared since she'd left. She thought about him often, feared he might have relapsed and was eager to disprove it. At the same time she was nervous to see him because she had no idea how to tell him about his brother.

A warm front had swept over the region and the snows of early winter were delayed, replaced by a steady, drizzling rain, the air saturated with cold moisture. It was the worst weather possible for a lung disease such as Itachi's, but traveling south was too dangerous with Itachi not recovered enough to respond to threats and fight alongside her. Besides, their secluded little cabin out in the middle of nowhere was perfect for hiding Itachi's existence and the purpose of their arrangement.

With no need to stop, Sakura bypassed the village proper and continued into the misty foothills. The forest was still and peaceful, its resident creatures silent as they sheltered from the rain. Her perimeter was intact but weakened by days of neglect; she would have to renew it as soon as possible. Though Itachi's chakra was perfectly concealed as usual, she could still feel his presence as she entered the clearing. However, she couldn't tell anything about his state from this distance. She let her own chakra leak out a little to announce her arrival, but it was probably unnecessary; he could feel her too.

She couldn't deny that she rushed the last few steps to the house, but regained herself enough not to look _too_ anxious as she all but flew through the door.

What greeted her was a rather anticlimactic scene: Itachi, perfectly fine, sitting by the fire reading the book she'd given him. Over the course of three days her mind had dredged up fears of finding him unconscious on the floor…or worse. He rose and turned to her, calm and unemotional as ever.

Filled with relief and a genuine happiness to see him, Sakura smiled. "Hi."

"Welcome back."

"How are you feeling?" She set her pack on the table and began removing her outerwear. "Any fevers or chills? Any coughing blood?"

Itachi shook his head once. "I've had occasional difficulty breathing, some coughing…but never with blood."

Thankfully he hadn't regressed more severely. "That's great. I'd like to do a session right away though, once I unpack."

Itachi watched her as she moved around and rifled through her pack. In the week she'd been away, Sakura had almost forgotten the slightly awkward, pleasantly flattered feeling his focused attention always gave her. As she unsealed the storage scroll and laid the more gratuitous items on the table, she happened to notice Itachi's expression sharpen, and a certain glint in his eye gave her the feeling that what she was seeing was probably his version of enthusiasm. She followed his gaze to…a box of dango.

"You like dango?" she asked, amused.

"I like most sweets."

Sakura raised a brow. "Interesting. I would have expected you to be kind of a health nut."

"As a child I was forced to be. We were never allowed anything not strictly nutritional."

"Why not?"

"Indulgence is weakness," he said, lips twisting faintly in irony. "When I became able to make my own choices, I developed a liking for all things sweet."

Sakura couldn't understand why a parent would deny their children a few simple pleasures, to let them be _children_, occasionally. Sasuke still refused to eat junk food to this day, as far as she knew. It was interesting and a little funny that Itachi—the perfect, celebrated heir—was the rebel of the family, while Sasuke was the traditional conservative.

"Well then," she tore open the plastic covering and pulled out two sticks, grinning as she handed him one, "enjoy."

Itachi's lips curved in faint amusement as he took her offering and bit into the first portion. They were silent for a minute, enjoying the mildly sweet flavor of their treats. Sakura wondered how long it might have been since Itachi had last enjoyed something like this.

"Do you like persimmons?" she asked him, indicating the small net bag of little orange fruits. "They were a gift." As she'd left her house in the early hour before dawn she'd discovered the bag on her doorstep with a note from Ino's mother, telling her to be safe and hoping the fruits would remind her of home. Ino must have told her about the extended mission. Sakura's own mother had passed two years ago, and since then Mrs. Yamanaka—who'd been a good friend of her mother and whom Sakura had known all her life, growing up in the house next door—had taken to looking after her in little ways like this.

"I do." He stared at the bag, suddenly recalling an almost forgotten memory: a sweltering autumn afternoon when he was very young, Sasuke only a toddler. As Konoha's youngest prodigy, he was often shown unsolicited favoritism by the villagers, and a woman in the market had given him an armful of the succulent fruit on his way home. He'd shared them with his brother on the back porch, bare feet dangling over the edge while Sasuke laughed at the ducks in the pond as they dipped and bobbed, exposing their feathered tails. His father had come upon them and reprimanded him for teaching Sasuke bad habits. He'd thought his father unreasonably stern, and avoided him the rest of the day. It was the first time he had regarded either of his parents as fallible. "I haven't eaten one in many years," he said quietly. "It's very…nostalgic."

Sakura wondered if that was a good or a bad thing, but refrained from asking. She put the fruit by the kitchen window to ripen further and then finished unpacking. Afterward she had Itachi lie on the bed for a reevaluation of his health.

She was slow and meticulous, probing his organs and internal systems thoroughly in a way she hadn't done since the initial examination in the clinic. She used the opportunity to tell him about her talk with Tsunade.

"I'm surprised the Hokage knew as much as she did," Itachi said when she'd finished.

"No kidding," she stated dryly. It still bothered her that nothing could be done immediately. Itachi was unfazed by the news that he would remain a missing-nin—he'd probably expected it. He wasn't an optimist like her. "Why didn't you tell me you were Jiraiya's contact?"

"I didn't think it mattered."

Sakura frowned at him. "Of course it matters! It's the only proof aside from your own word that you were never an enemy of Konoha."

"Well," he said slowly, "as you know, I never intended that fact to be exposed either."

She supposed he had a point, though it was a little troubling that he still seemed to have no interest in his own exoneration. She sighed quietly and let the matter go. "At any rate, it looks like we'll be here a while, until you're fully ready."

Silence fell between them as the healing continued. She pushed back his sleeve to feel his pulse, then moved her other hand under his shirt and over his abdomen, up to his lungs.

Itachi closed his eyes, very subtly clenched his jaw against the sensations she was causing with her seemingly innocuous touch. The way the pad of her thumb brushed across the thin skin on the inside of his wrist, her other hand moving over his chest…every time her skin touched his, her chakra surged through his cells to meet its counterpart, sending little currents and shivers through his veins and pathways. He had never felt anything like it and…it was not unpleasant. Indeed, it had the opposite effect, and he was growing irritated at his lack of control over it. Time and distance were supposed to have eradicated this phenomenon, or at the very least diminished it. It was stronger than ever. He was beginning to feel a compelling urge to grab her hands and…

He did not want to finish that thought.

Although she hid it well, Sakura was also acutely aware of the skin on skin reaction. She hadn't yet released his wrist, and was therefore aware of his pulse jumping as she ran her other hand over his torso. Goosebumps rose on his arms. Her fingertips tingled as she touched him. It seemed the time apart had hyper-sensitized the chakra connection, the opposite of what she'd expected. She should have spoken to Tsunade about it, but she'd been reluctant to admit what was happening, afraid she would be judged unfit for the mission—which was far from accurate despite this…problem. Itachi's breathing was deep and even, his eyes firmly closed, and she suspected he was trying to meditate to calm the automatic reaction of his body.

There was more to it than the biochemical reaction of their chakras, however. For Sakura, touching him in and of itself provided its own sensation. She had finally acknowledged her attraction to him, and now she couldn't help but be aware of him in that way; aware of the smoothness of his pale skin and the striking contrast of his long dark hair against it, the contours of lingering muscle definition beneath her hands…she observed his build and imagined what his body must have looked like before he fell ill, what it would look like again when he was well…. She wanted to touch places that weren't necessary to her exam.

That was when she realized this exam was proving unnecessarily awkward and uncomfortable for both of them, and was dangerously close to crossing a professional line. Her chakra output ceased and she rose from the edge of the bed, looking at anything but him.

Itachi immediately sat up, as if he felt there was suddenly some unacceptable vulnerability in lying down. His eyes were clouded as he glanced at her, wary, and for a moment seemed almost…accusatory.

His sudden distrust annoyed her; she hadn't done it on purpose! It was just as unsettling to her as it was to him, perhaps more so because _she_ was the medic and _she_ was the one supposed to be able to explain these things! After three weeks they still hadn't talked about it, and she found herself still unable to do so now. She mentally searched for something—anything—else to say.

"Are you hungry?" she blurted. "I can make some dinner."

"I ate a while ago," he answered flatly.

"Oh, okay." She chewed her lower lip a moment. "Do you need anything else?"

"No."

"Are you sure?" she pressed. "I can make tea—"

Suddenly he was glaring at her. "I am not an invalid, Sakura; I don't need to be coddled."

He hadn't snapped at her like that since their first conversation in the clinic and Sakura was taken aback, chagrined and a little offended. She didn't understand where this unexpected hostility came from. But, then again…maybe she did.

"Right. Sorry," she muttered. A long, uncomfortable moment passed before she added, "I need to go restore the perimeter."

Itachi said nothing, actually seemed to be ignoring her. Sakura quickly donned her coat and went outside. It had been an excuse to get away, but an honest one. She followed the invisible circular border through the forest, replacing the chakra netting along the ground and in the trees, all the while thinking about what was happening between them.

While the connection exacerbated the situation, it was obvious now that it wasn't the root of the problem. Extreme proximity, prolonged isolation from other people, and the increasingly annoying chakra bond had made it nearly impossible to ignore the fact that she was attracted to him, strongly, and for all Itachi's emotional and physical reserve, she suspected she was not the only one unexpectedly affected by hormones. The idea of Itachi even _having_ hormones made her laugh aloud, startling a bird from its nest.

The situation was problematic in many ways, but Sakura was too intrigued by the possibilities and frankly, too drawn to the impossibly handsome and fascinating man sharing her living quarters to really convince herself she shouldn't allow any further incidents to happen. It was a completely new sensation to her, different from any crush or youthful fantasy she'd had before. She wanted to see where it might go.

Her resolve grounded her and gave her some clarity over the matter, and when she returned to the cabin and went inside, she no longer felt awkward in Itachi's presence. She stripped off her coat and sat in front of the fire to warm herself.

For his part, Itachi seemed to have regained his usual composure, and joined her a moment later. "When would it be feasible to resume training exercises?"

It must be driving him crazy to be so unfit, she realized. Not to mention he was cooped up in this tiny cabin all day with nothing to do but read. "Within the next couple of weeks, probably. As long as it's light stuff: target practice, basic kata… I know you'll hate to hear this, but you'll pretty much have to start all over again and rebuild your stamina, or else you run the risk of permanent disability."

Itachi nodded acceptingly, aware of the risks of pushing oneself beyond capable limits. They fell silent for a few minutes before he spoke again.

"I apologize…for before," he said, eyes fixed on the fire.

"There's no need," she replied quietly. "You were right. But I was away for so long, I guess I felt I needed to do _something_…" It also occurred to her that she may have been unconsciously trying to preemptively placate him, to relax him and make it as easy as possible to tell him about Sasuke. The longer she waited the harder it would be, she knew. Now that they were both calm, it was as good a time as any. She took a deep breath, met his gaze. "There was more news from Konoha…"

She spoke slowly and reservedly as she related what she'd learned, not wanting her own anger on the matter to influence him. Sasuke was in league with Madara and had joined Akatsuki. He had attacked and captured the eight-tail jinchuuriki, the Raikage's brother, on the organization's behalf, causing an international incident. He knew about the massacre and who was truly responsible, and based on their latest information, the probability was high that he intended to attack Konoha for revenge.

It was exactly as Itachi had predicted. Though he hadn't known about Akatsuki's part, he wasn't shocked to hear it as Sakura had been. After all it was Madara's organization, how he covered his movements. He may not have been completely surprised, and he gave no obvious sign of anger, but Sakura had learned to read him in little ways and she saw the hints of deeply restrained emotion; a clenched jaw, a brooding, preoccupied look in his dark eyes, the extreme stillness and tension in his body.

Several minutes passed in heavy silence and Itachi didn't respond—he had completely withdrawn into himself in thought, and barely seemed to register her presence. Sakura didn't know what to say; everything sounded hollow and inadequate in her mind.

Suddenly she felt very tired; three days of stress and hurried, anxious travel had caught up with her. She murmured that she was going to go lie down for a while—he didn't acknowledge her—and left him by the fire. Since he wasn't using it at the moment, she felt no qualms about crawling onto the bed and immediately falling asleep.

#

She woke to the sound of thunder. The light outside had darkened to flat gray under the storm, and a steady muted drumming beat against the roof above. Her internal clock told her it was sometime in the early evening.

Lying there for a moment as her eyes adjusted to being awake, she began to sense that something wasn't right with her surroundings. It wasn't just darker outside, it was darker _inside_ as well, because the fire had dwindled to little more than embers. It was unnaturally quiet. Unnaturally _still_; she didn't feel the presence of another living thing in the room with her. She sat up in bed and looked around to find a dim, empty room. The only sounds were the rain and her own breathing.

Itachi was gone.

Already knowing it was pointless to call out to him, Sakura was on her feet in an instant, not bothering to grab her coat as she ran out the door.

The clearing was empty. No sign of his passage. She ran to the middle of the open area and looked around helplessly. Her tracking skills were average and Itachi was one of the most elusive missing-nin in the five nations. How could she have been so stupid?She'd known he was upset! She should have known he wouldn't take it passively.

Sakura began to panic. He was going to kill himself. There was no way he was well enough to travel long distances, and he certainly wasn't ready to confront anyone in a fight if he _did_ manage to get where he was going. She had to find him immediately, but how? Should she run toward Konoha and hope to encounter him on the way? Should she use the scroll Tsunade had given her, summon Kakashi, and have him utilize his elite tracking skills or even his dogs to find Itachi?

Realizing that desperation was making her irrational, she forced herself to stop and breathe. _Calm down. Think_, she told herself. He couldn't have gone far, couldn't have slipped past her perimeter…right? She didn't know if such a thing was possible, but if it was, she supposed Uchiha Itachi would probably be able to do it.

Suddenly she realized there _was_ a way to find him…

Sakura closed her eyes and breathed deeply, stilled her mind, and slowly extended her chakra outward and _felt_ for him. She felt her own perimeter first, and because it was fresh, for a while it was difficult to focus on anything smaller or more distant. Several minutes passed as she concentrated, and she began to worry that he was hiding himself too well or that he was out of range. And then, very faintly, she felt it: a tiny prickle of her own chakra, diluted from mixing with his. Sakura frowned in dismay. He was well beyond her perimeter—the bastard—moving due south.

Moving as fast as she possibly could at chakra-enhanced speed, she caught up with him in less than a minute. Itachi had felt her approach and already stopped. She flickered into sight several feet in front of him, boots skidding slightly on rain-slick moss at her sudden stop.

Anger rose in the wake of her earlier panic. "Are you an idiot? What the _hell_ are you doing out here!"

Itachi's only response to the obvious question was a brooding glare, not bothering to conceal his anger. He was soaked to the skin and ghostly pale under the diffused greenish light of the deep forest.

Equally soaked, Sakura pushed her drenched hair from her face and slowly took a step toward him. "How is killing yourself going to help matters? Because that's exactly what you're doing by taking off like this before you're ready. I thought Sasuke was the reckless one."

His scowl only deepened. "The situation is worse than I anticipated," he said flatly. "There is no time to wait."

"So what are you going to do, fight Madara and Sasuke and Kisame and anyone else who happens to be around?" she cried incredulously. "Gods, Itachi, you're not thinking!"

"Just because it makes no sense to you does not make it irrational or erroneous, Sakura."

"You're going to end up _dead_!"

His weighted silence told her everything. She wanted to slap him. He had just gotten his life back, and he wanted to throw it away again! Anger and frustration and sorrow all welled up inside of her at once. She regretted telling him. The corners of her eyes stung; it hurt to care about someone who didn't care about himself.

"Don't do it like this," she implored softly.

The forest was silent around them, the only sound the occasional _drip-drip_ of rain falling from the foliage to the mossy earth. Itachi looked off into the trees and sighed.

"This is not what I wanted for my brother," he said at length. "This is the very opposite. I have failed him."

Sakura shook her head. "No." Cautiously, she approached him until they were nearly toe to toe and reached up, touched her fingertips to his jaw, silently requesting his gaze return to her. It did, and the weight of it momentarily caught her breath in her throat. "No, Itachi…_he_ has failed _you_."

Itachi just stared at her for the longest time, dark eyes clouded with an unreadable intensity. Then he closed his fingers around her hand, slowly rubbed the pad of his thumb across the inside of her wrist, as she'd done to him earlier.

Her pulse quickened at the contact, and she found herself unable to look away.

"You're right," he said mutedly. He slowly lowered her hand, but didn't release her. "But I set him on this path, and I am the only one who can stop him."

"And you _will_. But it doesn't have to be this way." She took a small step closer. "Come back with me."

Caught up in the moment and his magnetic gaze, Sakura wasn't really aware of what she was doing, of the nature of her persuasion. Itachi was fully aware, however, and her unconsciously seductive actions had the opposite effect of their intention. His expression darkened, and his grip on her wrist tightened.

"Why do you even care what happens to me, Sakura?" he demanded. "Why do you help me?"

Sakura was taken aback by the sudden shift in his demeanor. It was her mission. She was ordered to. But that wasn't the only reason anymore. "Because I—"

Itachi read the compassion and affection in her expressive eyes and didn't let her finish. "I don't need your sympathy. I don't deserve your kindness. You know what I am…what I've done. Do not forget it because an unusual side-effect has made you think you feel close to me. I've killed countless innocent people. Weak and defenseless people. Elders…_children_."

His features darkened bitterly. "There is something fundamentally…_twisted_, inside of me. It should make you afraid." He shifted closer to her in a way that was unmistakably intimidating, and his eyes bled crimson with the emerging Sharingan. Not since he attacked her in the clinic had he activated his doujutsu. The hand not holding her wrist rose to her face and cold fingers trailed down to her throat where they rested lightly against her exposed skin. The sinister message was very clear, yet behind the anger his eyes held a burning curiosity, as though for all his genius intellect, he just couldn't figure her out. "Why aren't you afraid of me?" he murmured.

Honestly she _was_ a little unnerved. A dangerous, emotionally distraught man had his hand around her throat—even if his touch was as soft as a caress, his eyes were far from gentle. Sakura had not forgotten that despite the truth of his past there was still a dark edge to this man. He did terrible things at a very young age and then spent the next decade of his life among the cruelest, most violent people imaginable. He had played the villain masterfully, and that had required him to do things to cement his cover. It was impossible for anyone to not be affected by that kind of life. That darkness of his past would always be with him, another stain on an already scarred psyche. Sakura knew these things, just as she knew there were things about Itachi that were _not_ part of his facade. He _was_ ruthless when he needed to be, and often had a detached, calculatingly efficient way of looking at things, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to do what he'd done.

But Sakura had seen the man he truly was, at first through the chakra bond and later through the gradual trust and openness they had established. She didn't believe he would hurt her. She didn't think he had ever truly wanted to hurt _anyone_. Except for Madara.

"Because you're a good man," she answered steadily. "One of the most noble and honorable I've ever met."

Itachi actually scoffed at her. "I'm not a good man," he retorted coldly. "I repeatedly tortured Sasuke—my own little brother—so that he would want to kill me…to release me from this existence. It would have been kinder to let him die that night, but I kept him alive out of guilt. I forced him to live a pathetic life full of suffering, to ease my own burden. I worked for Akatsuki willingly, participated in their atrocities, all so that I could get closer to Madara and have a chance to kill him for my own personal revenge."

Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but Itachi wasn't finished, and showed it by applying the slightest pressure against her throat.

"As much as Sasuke deserves to hate me…there is a part of me that hates him as well," he declared with a quiet scorn that Sakura knew wasn't for her. "I gave up _everything_ for him…and he spits on my sacrifice. I never wanted him to learn the truth, but he has, and _this_ is what he does with it. At times – like now – I think I resent him as much as I care for him." His expression was cold, self-loathing. "There is nothing noble about me, Sakura, and you would do well to learn that."

Sakura's expression only softened as she gazed into his swirling eyes without fear. "I understand," she said. "You're only human. You have a right to want a life for yourself, to have or do something that doesn't revolve around someone else. With the way Sasuke is acting right now you have _every_ right to be pissed off and disappointed. You have a right to want revenge for what was done to you. It's okay to be selfish sometimes."

The lethal crimson faded from his eyes, leaving them dark and clouded once more. He watched her closely a moment, then his hand rose to her face, knuckles brushing softly across her jaw line before he released her completely. "If you knew the depths of my selfishness you would not say such a thing."

Inexperienced as Sakura was, there could be no mistaking the intent behind his words. Her stomach curled with a nervous excitement. The way he was looking at her filled her with an unfamiliar tension that was still a little frightening, but at the same time…she wanted him to touch her again. She recalled the moment earlier as she healed him, the thoughts she'd had and the way he'd reacted to her touch. Would he react similarly if she touched him again, without chakra?

Acting on an impulse driven by compassion, Sakura closed the distance between them and slipped her arms around his shoulders. Though he didn't stop her, Itachi went completely still as she pressed herself to him and rested her chin on his collarbone. "It will be all right," she promised softly. Her fingers twisted into the wet strands of his ponytail as she continued to stand there, resting against him.

Itachi tensed; her closeness, her warmth, her scent overlaid his turbulence, and though overwhelming, the thought of preventing her or moving away hadn't actually occurred to him. For the first time in a long time, his mind was wiped completely blank. The only thing in his head at the moment was the vague notion that having one's hair tugged like that was not supposed to be a pleasant sensation…

As his thought processes gradually returned he realized she was getting to him. He had thought out his decision thoroughly as he always did and was firm in his resolve, yet here he was…conflicted. Slowly, not really sure of his own reasons for doing so, he awkwardly returned her embrace, lightly curved his fingers around the back of her neck. He heard her breath catch slightly. She was so small and soft and…_trusting_. It would be effortless to break her when she let her guard down like this. It would be nothing to render her unconscious, allowing him to continue on his way without having to harm her. But as her warmth seeped into him through their soaked clothing, relaxing him, he began to realize that he no longer favored his original plan.

Part of him—a bigger part than he had previously acknowledged—wanted to give in, to stay. With Sakura. Part of him was starting to believe that sacrificing himself again for his previous goals _wasn't_ worth it. Part of him was starting to think he wanted to live and have a life of his own, just as she'd said.

It was unclear how long they stood in that tentative embrace, but eventually, Itachi was the one to slowly pull back. Sakura released her arms from around his neck and immediately felt chilled in the places where their bodies had connected.

She ran her fingers through her sopping hair. "If we stay here any longer we'll both end up sick." She gave a small, almost playful smile and softly repeated, "Come back with me."

This time, Itachi agreed. Sakura reached out and gently took hold of his hand, and he offered no resistance as she began leading the way back.

They were silent the whole way, but when they entered the cabin Sakura turned to Itachi and toldhim to go change into dry clothes. While he was in the washroom she hastily did the same, and was rebuilding the neglected fire when he came out again. He looked exhausted and far too pale. She retrieved one of the extra blankets from the foot of the bed and went to him.

"Here," she said quietly, wrapping it around his shoulders. Her hands curled around the edges of it and lingered there, resting against his chest. "I know it's not easy to be so removed from the world, with all that's happening. But try to have a little faith. Sasuke is being manipulated, and no matter how hurt and angry he is…he's smart enough to realize that. He may even have some ulterior motive in joining with Madara."

He gave her a dry look. "You tell me to have faith…it's obvious that you don't even believe your own words, Sakura."

"Maybe not," she admitted soberly, "Maybe I don't believe in Sasuke because he's let me down too many times. But I _do_ believe in Naruto. We'll find Sasuke together and you, Naruto, or all of us will either get through to that bastard…or we will stop him."

"It pains you to admit the latter possibility," he discerned quietly.

"Of course it does. But I'm not as naïve as I used to be."

"But you still hope."

Sakura held his searching gaze and softly replied, "I hope for a lot of things."

Itachi understood her meaning, even if Sakura only half understood it herself. His face went carefully blank, but his eyes darkened with an intensity that did the strangest things to her insides. Such a long silence passed between them that she began to wonder if he would say anything. She had left a door open but he wasn't walking through. Deciding she should stop now before she embarrassed herself, she loosened her hold on the blanket and dropped her eyes, intending to back away.

That was when Itachi leaned in and pressed his mouth to hers.

Her tiny sound of surprise quickly evolved into a sigh as she responded, hands coming to rest on his chest once more. His fingers tangled gently in her hair, brushed the slender curve of her neck, feeling her pulse quicken. For once he didn't think about what he was doing or what he _should_ do, only knew that he _needed_ to. Her lips against his were the softest and sweetest thing he'd ever felt in his life.

Sakura had only been kissed a couple of times before but it had been nothing like _this_. Itachi's kiss was unexpectedly tentative, lacking the confidence he usually displayed, but felt barely restrained, as if he were desperately searching for something within the moment, within _her_. That pure rawness of feeling drew her in, enveloped her completely.

Somehow they moved together and bumped the edge of the table. Sakura shifted until she was half seated on it, and slid her arms around his neck. The table wobbled slightly and he steadied her with an arm around her waist, fingers splaying across the small of her back, pressing her forward. The blanket fell from his shoulders to the floor.

Slowly they tested each other's responses, cautiously discovering, mouths hovering a fraction apart for only a moment before meeting again. What was most surprising, to both of them, was how natural it felt to take this step, how…comforting.

Gradually they lost some of their mutual hesitancy and became more passionate. When Sakura tapped the tip of her tongue against his he responded in kind. A moment later his tongue swept against hers fully, and Sakura's knees nearly gave out. Something warm stirred deep in her belly, and a tiny sound of pleasure escaped the back of her throat. The inside of her thigh rubbed against the outside of his, and in her desire to feel him closer, she hooked her leg around his knee, tugged her fingers through the still-damp hair at his nape and pulled him against her.

Her boldness seemed to ignite something in Itachi and he groaned, deep in his chest – a low, primal sound that was barely audible, yet caused the warm pulsing in her core to spike sharply. He leaned over her as their kiss deepened further, and Sakura leaned with him, angling backward inch by inch until she had to brace one hand on the tabletop to keep steady.

Suddenly Itachi tensed, his fingers clenched almost painfully into her lower back. Before Sakura could ask what was wrong, his shoulders hunched and he ducked to the side as the cough he'd tried to suppress escaped his throat. It started as little breathless spasms and quickly grew worse until he all but fell against her.

As she'd learned early on, there was really nothing she could do for him until it passed, and so Sakura held him, ran her hands soothingly over his shaking shoulders while wondering what triggered the sudden fit; whether it was his reckless venture into a thunderstorm, or perhaps what they had been doing a moment ago. There was no blood, and it passed soon, leaving Itachi tired and breathless.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly, cupping his face as she angled to look at him.

Itachi nodded faintly and carefully straightened. Their eyes met, and it was clear neither of them regretted what they had done. But the mood was lost now, and he slowly disentangled from her, moved back to allow her to stand.

Sakura smoothed her tousled hair, thought about how it got that way, and broke out in a sweet, almost giddy smile. "You should lie down for a while," she said. "I'll make some tea."

She made her favorite, one that she'd brought from Konoha, and sweetened it with honey. If Itachi liked things sweet, she wondered how he'd managed to stomach the bitter medicinal teas she'd been making him drink unsweetened; he'd never once complained or even made a face.

The fire was blazing once more, and the room had returned to its normal state of toasty warm. Itachi was resting atop the covers, half sitting against the headboard with his arms folded over his middle. Sakura offered his cup and then joined him, sitting at the edge of the bed.

"So. How did you get past my perimeter?" she asked him, still a little irked by that fact. "Is there even a point in having one if any random s-classed shinobi can just waltz right through undetected?"

"I knew it was there," he said simply. "An enemy wouldn't have that advantage."

Sakura gazed at him, and a surge of warmth filled her at the memory of their kiss. She scooted further onto the bed, until her thigh pressed alongside his. "Hm. Okay. Maybe you could show me how you did it sometime."

Her words reminded her of what she'd said to him that night in the clinic: _'Well maybe you can teach me all your fancy little tricks sometime, Mister Perfect Shinobi.'_ That bitter, ironic expression, the basis for which she now understood, had crossed his face as he'd told her that he was far from perfect.

Itachi was thinking of that moment as well, and watched her pensively, thinking how he had displayed his flaws all too clearly today. He reached out, touched his fingertips to the skin of her throat. "Earlier, when I…"

He was about to apologize to her for the second time today, but Sakura cut him off by gently grabbing his hand, curling her fingers around his as she lowered them to her lap. "I know you wouldn't hurt me," she said softly.

"No, I wouldn't," he murmured, searching her face for some sign that would reveal how she was able to read him so well. She _didn't_ know, and her easily granted trust was something that continued to confound him. And now she seemed to have ideas about him—about _them_—that were far too optimistic. "Not in that way, at least."

Sakura understood what he was implying, and concerns about where this would lead them had filled her mind as well. But she had already decided to take the risk. She believed it would be worth it.

She leaned down and softly pressed her lips to his. It was slow and sweet, a comforting gesture, telling him it would be all right. Again she felt the same hesitancy from him, like he wasn't used to this kind of thing. But he was responding; his hand even curved around the back of her neck, holding her in place. His touch was cool, but that wasn't what sent a tiny shiver down the length of her spine. She tasted tea and honey on his lips and wondered if she tasted just as sweet for him.

When she pulled back, she smiled at him. A moment later, she wordlessly took both cups and set them on the floor, then boldly cuddled up next to him and pulled the blankets over them both. "You're cold," was her explanation, though it was only half of her motivation. Itachi tensed slightly, unused to such prolonged contact with another person. Sakura, who was never shy about touch, belatedly realized that even though they may have made out on the kitchen table a few minutes ago, for him, all of this may be too much, too soon. "Is this okay?" she asked uncertainly.

Itachi didn't answer. She was certainly forward in her affections, but while it was admittedly strange, and he didn't really know what to do with himself, or with her, he also found it to be rather…pleasant. She was incredibly warm against his side, and once he was able to quiet the deeply ingrained cautions of letting someone so close, he decided that he liked her right where she was. He shifted a little and raised his arm to allow her a more comfortable position.

Sakura smiled and curled against him, laying her head in the hollow of his shoulder. They were quiet and still for several minutes, getting used to each other in this new way. For all her boldness, Sakura was also new to this kind of intimacy, and so when Itachi began playing idly with her hair, her insides fluttered furiously.

"Why do you keep it short?" He sounded very relaxed, almost drowsy.

"I cut it years ago, when I realized I was shallow and weak, and that as a shinobi my priorities were all wrong." That painful moment of epiphany was still vividly clear in her memory, and she was reluctant to admit her less than admirable past to him, who was so good at everything.

"But you are no longer weak," he countered mildly. "Your reputation is quite the opposite, so cropping your hair no longer makes the same statement."

Sakura glanced up at him. "Are you saying I should grow it?"

Itachi looked down at her, then at her hair, studying the color and texture, imagining how it would look—framing her face, spilling over her shoulders, blowing in the wind…he imagined how it would feel to weave his hands into long coral tresses. Finally, betraying nothing of the rather interesting images his mind was conjuring, he merely said, "…I believe it would suit you."

Sakura only smiled and nestled further into his side. She began to grow sleepy as Itachi continued his languid actions and she listened to the sounds around her; his steady, relaxed breathing, the soft crackle of the fire, the faint patter of rain on the roof. She was nearly asleep when he spoke again.

"Here, in this place…it sometimes feels like a different life," he said, voice barely a murmur. "And I feel…like a different man."

She lifted her head, saw his distant, contemplative expression and smiled. "You can finally be yourself again," she replied drowsily.

He seemed vaguely bemused. "I hardly know who that person is."

"I'm starting to know him," she returned, lowering her head to his shoulder again and laying her hand over his, "and I like him very much."

Itachi never replied, and soon Sakura was asleep. He remained awake for some time, reflecting on her words and all that had happened today. A few hours ago he had been fully prepared to throw everything away again. Now he was faced with the idea that there might be more to life than brutality, duty, and sacrifice.

His final thought as he drifted to sleep was: if he could have more moments like this, moments of peace and contentment where a beautiful girl put her arms around him and whispered words of hope and promise…maybe there was a reason to live, after all.

* * *

Next chapter: _The Blurred Line_


	9. The Blurred Line

**Vespertine**

Chapter Nine: The Blurred Line

* * *

_Now that I've found you_

_And seen behind those eyes_

_How can I carry on?_

_For so bare is my heart, I can't hide_

* * *

Dawn was breaking.

Sasuke raised his head and looked to the window, noting the shift in light through the closed blinds with the dull, weary gaze of chronic fatigue. He ran his hands over his face, felt the faint scratch of stubble against his palms. Another nearly sleepless night.

Next time, he should at least pretend. Lying awake in a bed would be far better for his back than sitting hunched in a chair all night. Besides, if the others knew, they would fuss over him and that was the last thing he needed. He was going to kill himself if he kept this up, they would tell him, and they would only worry more if he told them that he really didn't care.

Only one thing mattered anymore.

He thought of his brother, whose corpse was rotting away in Madara's northern compound. He hadn't been able to look at the body, unable to physically confront the despairing enormity of that reality. His thoughts and feelings toward Itachi were more conflicted now than they had ever been: torn between love and hate, idolization and disappointment. So much more and so much less.

He wished he'd never learned the truth. If he'd only been able to hate him until the end, if he'd been able to feel justified in taking his brother's life…he might have been able to move on.

There was a soft knock at the door, and he straightened into a more composed posture. "What."

"Sasuke-kun?" The door clicked open and Karin poked her head in, peered around the darkened room until she found him, and then tentatively came inside. "We'll be ready to move out just after sunrise," she informed him.

Today they would begin the final journey to Konoha, where he would put an end to the villainy that had destroyed his family. There was no coming back from this mission. He knew that. He didn't care, as long as those corrupt elders went down with him. His only regret was that the three he'd come to call comrades probably wouldn't make it out either, but they refused to let him go alone. Sasuke breathed deep, and nodded.

"How long will it take to get there?"

They were at the western end of Earth country, in another of Madara's hideouts. Travel would be slow to avoid drawing unwanted attention. "A few weeks, probably," he answered.

Karin lingered, crossing her arms over her chest self-consciously. "…Are you alright?" she asked tentatively.

He doubted he would ever be alright again. "I'm fine," he grunted.

"Are you sure?"

Sasuke shot her a glare, looking her way for the first time. Usually it was enough to get her—any of them—to back off, but now she only stared right back at him. The light through the doorway cast a halo around her bright crimson hair.

Karin struggled with herself for a moment, but then finally took a deep breath and said, "Sasuke-kun, I think we should talk."

If Sasuke hadn't long since perfected his poker face, he would have cringed. He didn't respond.

She pressed on. "About…_that_."

"What's there to talk about?" he said as coolly as possible.

"Um, a lot, actually." She waited. He remained silent. "Are you going to pretend it didn't happen?"

If only he could. He was surprised she'd waited this long to bring it up. It had been a mistake, for many reasons. In the wake of the ordeal with Itachi he had been unstable, teetering back and forth between grief and rage…and then he'd almost died fighting the eight-tails. They all had. It had been an affirmation of life, nothing more. It happened all the time between shinobi. It was nothing.

So why did he still think about it?

He sighed irritably and dragged his fingers through his unkempt hair. "Not now, Karin."

She huffed indignantly. "Then when? _Never_, right?"

Her words were bitter—hurt and angry at the same time. Sasuke glared at her again; his reflexive wall of defense. He couldn't deal with this now.

Karin wasn't known for her tact or gentility, and after a long moment of tense silence, she finally lost her temper. "You need to pull your head out of your ass, Uchiha Sasuke! Stop fixating on the past or future or whatever and take a look at what's right in front of you!" She spun abruptly and went to leave.

She did this all the time: told him off "for his own good" and then got all huffy when he ignored her. She always got over it eventually. But Sasuke knew it was different this time. He suddenly felt like he had damaged something. He didn't want her to be angry with him over this.

"Karin."

She stopped in the doorway and turned, wary yet tentatively hopeful.

"Later, okay?" His voice came out softer and wearier than he meant it to.

Karin stared at him as if she didn't quite believe him, but finally gave a thin smile and nodded. Then she left. A few moments later, he heard banging on a door down the hall as she shouted at Suigetsu to get out of the bathroom. It was followed by the Mist nin's muffled voice replying with a string of profanities.

Sasuke sighed.

He'd lied to her. But then, he was lying to everyone. He was becoming as good a liar as his brother had been.

She'd said he thought too much of the past and future and not enough of the present. But that was the problem. The past was what drove him, and there was no future. In the end, it didn't matter what Karin felt or wanted, or whether he felt or wanted anything in return. It didn't matter if they never talked about it. He was on a one-way road to hell, and anyone he cared about would only be dragged down with him. It was why he'd left his first team—his first friends. His quest for revenge had taken everything, and when it was over there would be nothing left but the hollow emptiness he already felt creeping up on him. If he made her hate him, he would be doing her a favor.

Something disturbed the deeper shadows of the room, and the back of his neck prickled uncomfortably. His eyes bled red as he glared into the darkness.

The darkness spoke. "What a touching moment that was. She's quite…spirited, isn't she? You're a brave man, _Sasuke-kun_."

"Fuck off."

Uchiha Madara chuckled and emerged from where he'd been lurking, tall and cloaked and utterly sinister. "Now, now. Don't bite the hand that feeds."

Sasuke had no idea how long he'd been there listening and watching, and it unnerved him. "How did you know where I was?"

"I have ways."

"What do you want?" he snapped.

"You and your band of misfits broke your promise to me," he said darkly. "You were supposed to deliver the eight-tails."

"We _did_."

"No…it was a fake. You failed."

Sasuke frowned in surprise. "How is that possible?"

"You tell me. It would seem your Sharingan is below par to miss a detail like that."

In his mind he replayed the events of that fight, trying to figure out how his opponent had tricked him. Outwardly he was uninterested, and looked away dismissively. "We did what you wanted. It's not our problem anymore."

"It's your problem as long as I say it's your problem."

Sasuke's head snapped around to glare at the dark figure. "I'm not working for you or Akatsuki anymore."

A silent moment passed as Madara studied him like a vulture studying its next meal. "Oh yes. I'm afraid you are. You're going to finish the job you started."

They stared at each other in the darkness. Sasuke hated this man almost as much as he hated the ones responsible for his clan's massacre. He knew he was being used to do what Madara was too weak to do himself. A shadow of his former self, Itachi had said. Sasuke had gone along until now because it was convenient, but he had already vowed to kill him as well, if he had a chance.

"No," he said flatly. "Taka has other plans."

"You mean Konoha," Madara said wryly. "Don't bother. By the time you get there I doubt there will be much left."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm sending Pein to collect the jinchuuriki."

"Pein…?"

"The top member of Akatsuki, next to myself. He's not known for his diplomacy."

The news disturbed him, but he didn't dwell on it. "It doesn't matter. I have my own purpose in going to Konoha."

Madara huffed faintly in wry amusement. "I'm sure you do. But as I said, you're going to finish your job for me first."

Anger flared up inside him. "Or what?"

"Or I'll kill you."

In the next instant Sasuke flew across the room, lightning fast, the Chidori flaring to life on his fist as he drove it into Madara's chest.

It passed right through him. So did Sasuke.

Sasuke had to check himself hard to prevent his momentum from crashing him through the wall. The Chidori died out and he spun around to face Madara, heart pounding in alarm. It was the same as before…it just went right through, like an illusion or mirage. But Madara was definitely standing there before him; the Sharingan could discern the faint haze of his chakra.

"You know, you have a far more unpleasant nature than your brother. Perhaps it was you I should have used all along. Itachi was always too…_good_, for what I made him do."

Sasuke knew he was being goaded, and said nothing. His fists clenched in barely restrained rage.

Whether it was the noise or the flare of the Chidori or Karin sensing Madara's presence, a moment later his teammates burst into the room, weapons ready.

"What's going on, Sasuke?" Karin asked uneasily.

"Nothing," he replied curtly, still staring at the masked figure.

"This sure don't look like 'nothing,'" remarked Suigetsu.

"Just checking in," Madara said in a casual, mocking tone, "to let you know your work for me isn't finished."

"The hell it ain't!" the Mist nin snorted, shifting his hulking, stolen sword on his shoulder. "We did what you wanted."

"I'm not fond of repeating myself," Madara said, sounding bored. "I'll let you fill them in. See you soon, Sasuke-kun." He vanished.

The three other members of Taka stared at him, bewildered and concerned.

"What the hell was that?" Suigetsu demanded.

"The eight-tails escaped and he wants us to track him down again," Sasuke said, still trying to calm himself. "But it doesn't matter. Our plans aren't changing."

"Is it wise to make an enemy of him?" said Juugo.

Sasuke thought of what Madara had done to his brother. "He was already an enemy, from the moment he made his existence known to me." He suddenly felt unbelievably exhausted. "I need to get ready," he informed his lingering teammates, his tone flat to cover any unwanted slip of emotion. "We're leaving in an hour."

They shuffled out reluctantly. Karin was the last to leave, regarding him worriedly for a moment before quietly closing the door.

Alone again in the darkness, Sasuke sat at the foot of the bed and put his aching head in his hands.

* * *

The most wonderful aroma permeated Sakura's nose, stirring her from sleep. In the muddled, half-conscious moment that followed, she first became aware that she was alone in the bed. Then her senses cleared and she identified the smell which was teasing her and her appetite awake: grilled fish. With a soft sigh, she rolled over and opened her eyes.

Itachi was standing at the stove, his back to her. It took her a moment to register what she was seeing, and her eyes opened fully and she sat up as she realized he was making breakfast.

Sakura smiled.

Climbing quietly out of bed, she padded barefoot over to him. He didn't turn to her, but she knew he'd probably been aware the moment she'd woken. "You cook?" she asked, pleasantly surprised.

"Doesn't everyone?" he asked mildly, glancing at her sideways. The fringes of dark hair falling loose from his ponytail obscured his expression.

"Well, no, actually." Naruto, for example, couldn't manage to do more than boil water for ramen without wreaking havoc on food or kitchen.

He turned more fully this time, giving her a slightly bemused look. "How do you think I survived your absence, Sakura?"

"I suppose you could have eaten cold from the can," she returned playfully. Leaning against the counter, her gaze fell on the meal he'd prepared for them: a traditional breakfast of rice, miso, egg, and grilled fish. He'd even made tea. It all looked and smelled delicious. Her stomach gurgled eagerly.

Sakura had been making the effort to return to town once a week so they could have fresh food rather than canned and dehydrated meals all the time. Personal preferences aside, Itachi needed to eat as wholesomely as possible during his recovery. She'd been surprised to see fish in the market, but then remembered Itachi mentioning the western coast of Lightning was just over the mountains, two days away. It wasn't the freshest she'd ever had, but it was better than prepackaged food. She planned to make another trip tomorrow.

She knew why Itachi was up early; last night she'd told him he could start training today. She had fully expected to wake up and find that he'd been up for hours, already outside pushing himself to his limits. The last thing she expected was this. She looked up at him. "You didn't have to do this."

Itachi turned off the stove began placing their food onto plates. "…I wanted to."

Sakura thought him impossibly adorable at that moment. "Well…thanks." She moved inside his reach as he held a dish in each hand and rose on tiptoe to press a soft kiss to his cheek. The faintest of smiles curved his lips as he followed her to set the table.

When they sat down to eat, she took one bite of the fish and her eyes nearly rolled back in her head. It was prepared to perfection. "Mmmgh," she exclaimed through a mouthful. "This is _really_ good." Half-jokingly she added, "I think you should make all our meals from now on."

Itachi was rather pleased by her uninhibited reaction, and smirked. "I think that's only fair. Until now you have been doing everything yourself. It hasn't felt right."

In those first days, he hadn't been capable of much more than walking himself to the bathroom, and she wouldn't have let him do more if he'd tried, anyway. But she didn't say that, knowing any mention of his weakened state would only bother him. Instead, she gave him a playful grin. "You can be in charge of the fire as well then, since you're the resident katon master."

"We should share that duty," he returned smoothly. "I can't demolish trees as fast as you can."

Sakura laughed and took a few more bites of her delicious breakfast. Nothing she ever made tasted this good, and she wondered how he had suffered through her mediocre culinary attempts for the last month. "You know, it's really not fair," she protested, "that you're so good at everything…"

He was vaguely amused by that. "No one is good at everything."

"Really," she deadpanned. "What aren't you good at?"

"That should be fairly obvious to you by now."

Sakura studied him a moment. People. He wasn't good at dealing with people. He was so introverted that he would seem shy if he didn't have such a calm, composed presence. That combination of confidence and reticence made him seem arrogant at first, but she had soon discovered he was far from it. She'd read somewhere that it was a common stigma of genius; they were on such a different mental level than most people that they just didn't know how to interact socially. It frustrated her at times, but she had learned to see beyond it and didn't expect or demand long, heart to heart conversations with him. Besides, his silences often spoke volumes. And his actions were most definitely loud and clear…

Sakura blinked and stopped that train of thought before it ran away with her. She gave him a knowing smile. "No, I don't suppose you'll be giving any motivational speeches anytime soon, huh?"

They finished breakfast, and afterward cleaned up together. Then Itachi went outside to begin physical training. After writing some notes on his progress in her medical journal, Sakura bundled up as well and went out to check the perimeter.

As she stepped outside, her cheeks tingled as her lungs expanded in the cold, crisp air. Sakura loved the snow. Growing up in a temperate country, it was an exciting novelty to her. The weather had turned a few days ago and the forest around their little cabin was now pristine and white. Itachi's footprints leading around back were the only disturbance to the fresh blanket.

Several weeks ago, after finding Itachi in the clinic, she recalled thinking how strangely surreal that first encounter and the days following had been. Sakura knew Itachi felt the same; '_Here in this place…it sometimes feels like a different life_.' Their prolonged seclusion together had only furthered the feeling that they had somehow stepped outside of time and space into a world that belonged only to them. Especially in moments like now, when they were the only people for miles and the world was silent and still.

Stepping off the porch, she treaded carefully through Itachi's larger tracks as far as she could before diverging, not wanting to further disturb the picturesque serenity of the clearing. Once in the forest she took to the frost-covered trees. Over the past month, the periodic security maintenance had become her think time, when she wasn't preoccupied with Itachi's needs or her own. Now was no different, and soon her mind wandered.

In the two weeks since her return from Konoha they had fallen back into the same comfortable routine of healing sessions, shared meals, and stimulating conversation. They had played shogi a few times, but while Sakura was able to challenge him—a fact which Itachi admired and appreciated—she had quickly learned she really didn't stand a chance at winning against a tactical mastermind. They had switched to playing various card games to alleviate their intermittent boredom instead. The only thing different about their days was Itachi's occasional restlessness as he regained strength and his body yearned for physical activity. And of course, there was the new intimacy between them.

Sakura smiled to herself, a fluttery sensation filling her as it always did whenever she thought about those moments with him. Little moments, mostly. She was usually the initiator; she would reach for his hand, or her fingertips would linger in a caress during their healing sessions. Sometimes Itachi would touch her face, her hair. Sometimes he would kiss her, and it was those moments she longed for most; when he would lower his careful guard and show the depth of his attraction to her.

He was holding back, struggling with himself for several reasons, some of which she knew, and some she didn't understand. After so many years living in a constant state of danger and paranoia, it was difficult for him to let his guard down with another person, both physically and emotionally. Sakura was a very affectionate person, but didn't want to push him. He had already made a lot of progress with letting her get close. The uncomfortable cot had been put away for some time, and she now crawled into the bed beside him every night. She made an effort not to invade his space too much as they fell asleep, but every morning she would inevitably be curled against him. Itachi didn't seem to mind, for she often woke to find his arm around her, and a few times his face was pressed against her hair, his breaths tickling the back of her neck. On those mornings she had feigned sleep and stayed in bed as long as possible.

But sometimes, it almost felt as if there was a sadness to his affection, a hint of melancholy, as if he believed that he wasn't supposed to have what was between them, or that it wouldn't last. That was what Sakura didn't understand. Of course they both knew that he wouldn't be able to return to Konoha for a while yet, but it wasn't forever. There was no reason to think they couldn't be together. It was almost as if he knew something she didn't….

Sakura stopped suddenly as a nagging little fear wormed its way into the back of her mind. Maybe…maybe Itachi didn't _want_ to return to Konoha. Maybe he had no intention of devoting the rest of his new life to the village that ruined his old one. No one could blame him for that. And no one could expect him to change his mind on such a serious matter for the sake of a girl.

Troubled and distracted, Sakura rushed through the remainder of her perimeter check and headed back to the cabin. She spent the next few hours going over the notes in her journal and writing new ones, mostly to take her mind off other things. Around midday, she became hungry and restless, and went outside to check on Itachi.

He was going through a series of advanced kata. She leaned against the cabin and watched him silently for several minutes. His movements were fluid and beautiful, like a dance. Perfect, even after months of neglect. He may still be lacking in strength and stamina, but his agility and precision were flawless.

When he finished the set he turned to her. She smiled at him, partially forgetting the troubling thoughts from before. "I was about to make lunch. Are you hungry?"

Itachi shook his head. He was flushed and perspiring, but his breathing was only slightly labored. "I want to get through several more exercises before the temperature begins to drop."

"Oh. Okay. Well, don't push yourself too hard."

Itachi started another set without answering. Feeling slightly disappointed, Sakura went back inside and made lunch for herself. Afterward she lounged on the bed to read, and eventually fell asleep.

When she woke it was nearly full dark outside. She sat up and looked around. The lights were on, the fire burned steadily, and after a moment her ears picked up the sound of the shower running. She sat there, half zoning out and half thinking of the proposal she planned to make to Itachi, until the water stopped and he eventually emerged.

She didn't expect him to come out shirtless. From the look he gave her—albeit a mild, subtle one—he hadn't expected to find her awake. Her eyes automatically traveled over his torso, noting the changes. As usually happens when someone very ill or malnourished goes into recovery, he was gaining weight remarkably fast. He'd regained several pounds already, and would surely put on several more once he began to rebuild muscle mass. In a few more weeks, she figured, he would be back to his old self. His pants were still loose though, and hung low on his hips. Her eyes lingered appreciatively on his lower abdomen and hipbones for a moment before she caught herself. If Itachi had noticed—which she was sure he had—he didn't acknowledge it. "How was your workout?" she asked him.

"Frustrating," he muttered, frowning a little. "There is a long way to go."

"You'll get there soon. You've made amazing progress already."

"It's you who has made all the progress. Without your skills I would be dead now," he said pointedly.

"There's more to recovery than the healer; it's a two-way street. The patient has to want to get better." She smiled, and playfully conceded, "So we're both amazing, then."

Itachi just gave her an amused look and retrieved a shirt from the small chest of drawers that contained both their clothes. As he slipped his arms through and raised it over his head, Sakura noticed a very slight hesitation in the motion, as well as a wince just before his face disappeared under the fabric.

"What's wrong?" she asked, already suspecting.

"…Nothing. Just soreness." He finished pulling the shirt on with a carefully controlled expression.

She gave him a look. "I seriously doubt a little muscle stiffness would make Uchiha Itachi flinch," she said flatly. "You hurt yourself, didn't you? Get over here."

With only a mild glower, Itachi did as ordered. Sakura pulled him down to sit on the bed with her. "Take the shirt off again. It will make this easier."

Itachi doubted that, considering the effect her chakra-covered hands had against his bare skin the last time, but again he complied without argument, grimacing a little as he lifted his arms over his head.

Sakura massaged his shoulder, at first gently, then more intensively. Her hands began to glow and she sent small pulses of chakra under his skin, searching for inflammation or tearing. Itachi remained silent, and more relaxed than she'd expected. When she found the problem she clicked her tongue in reproach. "You've strained a tendon. You're lucky you didn't tear it completely. Your tendons and ligaments don't have the same musculature protecting them as before; they will strain and tear more easily. You can't push yourself this hard so quickly."

"There is no time to take things slowly."

"And if I have to keep repairing the damage you cause yourself it will take three times as long," she argued exasperatedly. "And while I _can_ heal it, it doesn't make you good as new. The more you injure yourself, the more prone to injury you will be in the future."

"I know this," he said, frowning slightly. If Sakura didn't know better, she might think he was pouting.

"Then take it easy, okay?" she urged quietly, running her hands over his shoulders soothingly. The sight and feel of his bare skin still did funny things to her, and she fought the urge to wrap her arms around him and press her face to the smooth plane between his shoulder blades. She shifted around to his side to remove the temptation, but it didn't really help. The strain was healed but she continued the massage, ostensibly to prevent his muscles from tensing, but mostly because she wanted to keep touching him.

Itachi felt the shift in her mood and intent. The pressure and rhythm of her hands had changed: less clinical, more of a caress. Her fingertips lingered against his skin, causing sensations that had little to do with her chakra. She was very close; he could feel her warmth, smell the subtle, feminine fragrance of her hair and skin. It called to him, beckoning him to close that distance, and without really thinking about it, he reached for her. His hand found her knee and moved upward, around, until he had leverage on the back of her thigh to pull her in.

Sakura's breath caught as he moved her, and she set both hands on his shoulders as she was pulled half across his lap. His other hand found her hip to steady her. Their faces were close, and their breaths mingled for a long, heart-catching moment before she closed the remaining distance to meet his lips.

It was a different kind of kiss than they usually shared; sensual and lustful, driven by raw attraction, and within moments Sakura was straddling his lap, hands sliding over his shoulders to link behind his neck. In the last two weeks they had perfected this together, and Itachi knew exactly what to do with his lips and tongue to make her turn to jelly. His hands too. Sometimes just his slightest touch would send a fluttery, electric jolt through her. They glided over the small of her back, slipped under the hem of her shirt. Sakura made a soft sound of shy pleasure as his roughened palms brushed the sensitive skin of her sides. It almost tickled, but felt too amazing to flinch away.

She responded to his bold caresses with her own, running her hands over his shoulder blades, nails pressing into his skin. Itachi growled low, or maybe purred was a better word, but hearing that deep sound of approval and knowing she caused it drove her further. Unconsciously, she shifted in his lap, pressing her breasts against his bare chest, her hips rolling forward against his. The effect was something she'd never felt before: a white-hot stab of pleasure that seemed to liquefy her insides. She didn't know if it had caused a similar reaction in Itachi, but suddenly he was holding her tighter and trailing heated kisses down her throat. Her head fell back as her body was assaulted by the most amazing shivers brought on by his mouth against her neck. Her body wanted that intense sensation again, and she gave in to its demand by rolling her hips once more.

That was when Itachi stilled, his hands tightening on her sides to hold her still as well. His face remained pressed against the curve of her neck, his eyes closed, breathing slowed and purposefully controlled. A long moment of silence passed, filled with the weight of what didn't happen.

Sakura let her head fall to his shoulder, squeezed her eyes shut in disappointed frustration and willed her racing pulse to slow. Itachi always stopped when things got a little intense, and sometimes she really wished he wouldn't. She understood the nature of this feeling and what her body craved, and knew she wanted to do these things with him. Knew he wanted to as well, but the man had the self-control of a monk. Trying to get him to talk about it would probably go nowhere, and again, she didn't want to push him.

His arms relaxed around her, almost falling away, and he lifted his head very slowly and brushed his lips over her temple. Unspoken understanding passed between them. Sakura sighed softly and carefully moved off him.

She remained close, and softly trailed her fingertips down the length of his arm. As they reached his elbow where the scars from his battle with Sasuke began and continued down his forearm, she spontaneously decided to heal them. There were several poorly healed shuriken cuts, but the majority of scarring was due to burns, more like singes really, where his brother had caught him for a second in one of their notorious fire jutsus. Chakra flared to life in her hands.

Itachi watched her actions for a minute, quietly bemused. "That's unnecessary and superficial," he remarked finally, though his tone was far from protesting.

A faint blush colored her cheeks. It was a shame for his near-perfect beauty to be marred, but that wasn't her primary motive. "Badly healed scars can prevent proper movement, as well as cause continued pain," she justified.

Itachi didn't argue with that, and a comfortable silence enveloped them for a while. Their silences were always comfortable now, a pleasant familiarity so differentfrom how it had been in the beginning. They didn't really need to talk to understand each other.

When she had nearly finished, Sakura spoke again. "I've been doing some research. Well, as much as I can in this place…and I think I might be able to do something for your eyes."

His expression was unreadable. "I wasn't aware that you knew about that."

"Kakashi has vision problems in his Sharingan eye," she explained. "Did you know he has a Mangekyo, too?" He blinked slowly and shook his head once. She wondered why he seemed so surprised. "Also, I've noticed little things, like you squint just a little when looking far away, and reading makes you tired. How bad is it?"

"My vision is darkening," he said. "Sometimes after prolonged use, I have intense, often debilitating headaches. It is the heavy price for all who obtain the Mangekyo. Right now, the world appears as though it's in a state of constant twilight. Light enough to see, but it has lost much of its vibrancy."

"Well maybe I can fix that. Will you let me try?" Itachi nodded, and she smiled softly. "How about we start after dinner? You have to be hungry by now."

"Would you like me to make it?"

The revelation of their delicious breakfast that morning made her want to say 'yes,' but she shook her head. "I'll make it. You should rest your arm."

Over the early dinner they talked more about his physical rehabilitation. Itachi didn't like limitations on things he'd been able to do since childhood, but he understood her reasoning, and the minor injury today helped to drive her point home. He promised to be more cautious when planning training exercises, and Sakura offered to start training with him once he was ready for a more intense routine. She needed it, for the weeks of inactivity were taking their toll on her as well.

Afterward Sakura had Itachi sit back on the bed, and she sat close at his side with her medical journal open before her. Itachi studied the scrawled, mostly shorthand notes—which were sideways from his perspective.

"You're sure about this?"

She thought she detected a note of anxiety in his tone. She was about to attempt an untested procedure on his eyes – his _Sharingan_ eyes. He had a right to be concerned about her messing with the most valuable thing he possessed. But after ridding his body of the disease that had plagued him for the past six years and repairing the extensive damage it had caused, Sakura had a feeling that healing his eyes would be the easy part.

"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't confident I can help in some way," she said. "The headaches you mentioned are almost certainly caused by residual chakra buildup behind the optic nerve, which may also be part of what impairs your vision. That's easy to fix. After that—" She paused and chewed her lip a moment. "Well, I admit this is entirely experimental, but I promise I won't try anything that might do you harm."

"I trust you," he said quietly.

The look in his dark eyes said he meant so much more than the current context, and Sakura was filled with such a warm, profound rush of feeling that she leaned forward and kissed him. He held her there, long fingers resting against her neck, his thumb brushing softly over her cheekbone. The moment stretched so long and sweetly that she almost forgot what she was supposed to be doing.

When she eventually broke away, she gave him her brightest smile. "Are you ready?"

Sakura went very slowly, keeping her eyes closed as her fingertips rested at the corners of his eyes, focusing on every minute detail. The eye being one of the most delicate and complex organs in the body, she had to be completely thorough and extremely careful. It turned out she'd been right about the chakra buildup, and first set to breaking down the thin layers of invisible residue collected behind the optical disk. Itachi sighed softly and relaxed more while she did so, as though it had already brought some relief.

After nearly an hour of probing and studying, Sakura opened her eyes. "I've figured it out," she said with quiet excitement. Itachi opened his eyes almost drowsily and focused on her. "I can do it."

He made no reply, but she could tell he was pleased. After a while she asked him to activate the Sharingan, noting how if internally affected his eyes. There wasn't much change in that form, so she asked him to activate the Mangekyo, and then switch back and forth between the two. She watched his eyes change, fascinated by the way the red and black bled together into different patterns, inwardly marveling at the deep, faceted beauty of the crimson doujutsu. It was one of the most dangerous and deadly things a shinobi could ever encounter, but Sakura wasn't afraid. Itachi wouldn't hurt her. As she'd expected, that second form elicited a noticeable difference in chakra pressure, as well as minute cellular deterioration with each activation.

"I can reverse the damage that's already occurred," she told him, "and I can stop the continual deterioration. _But_…every time you use the Mangekyo it _will_ damage your eyes. There's nothing that can be done about that. All I can tell you is to use it sparingly—_very_ sparingly."

"Would you be able to heal the damage afterward?"

"Well, yeah, of course. Um. If I'm around," she said, blushing a little. She had sort of just created a way for them to spend frequent time together for the foreseeable future. Not that she thought she needed to have an excuse to spend time with him…but. Well. There was just no way of knowing what was going to happen in the months ahead.

Itachi gave her a knowing, almost roguish smirk. "I believe I can live with those conditions. If you can."

Sakura couldn't fight her smile. "Works for me."

It was the closest they'd ever come to discussing the nature of their relationship and whether it would continue once they left this little cabin and the otherworldly wilderness. Feeling happy and deeply optimistic, Sakura resumed her task. Nearly another hour passed. Itachi seemed asleep by all outward appearances, but she knew better, and wasn't startled when he suddenly spoke.

"What is your rank?" he asked, voice heavy with deep relaxation. The question was seemingly out of nowhere, but he'd been thinking of how skilled and focused she was for her relatively young age.

"I'm a chuunin," she answered. "But the jounin exams are next summer, and I'm going to enter."

"Are you strong enough to pass?"

"I think so." Not really liking her answer, her features set resolutely and she nodded to herself. "Yes," she amended more firmly, meeting his eyes. "I am." Itachi just gave her a long, appraising look. "What?"

A mixture of amusement and respect flickered in his dark eyes. "I believe you are." He watched her another minute before asking, "Why did you become a kunoichi?"

She was a little surprised by all the questions. He wasn't usually so conversational. "I live in a hidden village. It's what people do," she quipped.

"If you belong to a shinobi clan, yes. But you are from a civilian family."

"Well…some of the Yamanaka clan live next door to me; their daughter Ino and I were always sort of rivals. And also…I wanted to do something important. I wanted to _be_ something special, you know? I wanted to impress people. Besides, I was never very good at being girly, and I figured fighting and throwing knives at things would be a good fit. Of course my mother was less than thrilled with my career choice."

"And you've never regretted it? Never wish you had chosen a different life?"

"No. Not for one second." She studied him, wondering where these questions were coming from. "Why did _you_ become a shinobi?"

His expression clouded over, and it was a long moment before he answered. "…I am an Uchiha. It's what we do," he said finally, playing on her words, though there was no humor in it. "It was expected of me as heir. It's what I was born to be."

It wasn't spoken with the conviction and pride most people attached to that phrase. From him, it sounded like a great, wearying burden. "But you didn't…want to be?" she ventured softly. "What did _you_ want?"

"…I don't know," he answered. "I've never allowed myself to think about it. There is no point in dwelling on what could have been."

"Maybe not," she admitted, saddened for him again. "But it's never too late to change the direction of your life, do something that makes you happy."

Itachi never replied to that. He fell quiet, deep in thought or memory, his gaze far away.

"It's almost finished. Keep your eyes closed," she instructed a while later. Her brow knit in concentration as she began the most difficult part: repairing the years of existing deterioration. Itachi's breathing was deep and even, and she tried to match it, to slip into that deep state of concentration and relaxation that helped him through moments of intense stress and anxiety. Painstakingly slow, her chakra wove like invisible threads through the microscopic pathways of his eyes. Clearing, smoothing, reconnecting. Tiny beads of sweat broke out on her brow. One small mistake and she could blind him permanently.

When it was over, she gave a small, triumphant sigh and opened her eyes. "Okay. How is everything?"

From the moment Itachi opened his eyes, the world was different. Like a light had been turned on in a darkened room. He sat up slowly and looked around in a state of muted shock. Almost, but not quite, smiling.

His eyes darted everywhere, taking in details about their living space that he'd never noticed before: the faded and threadbare quilt beneath him, the wood grain pattern of the slightly dusty floor, the rough, pocked surface of the stone walls.

For ten years his eyes had been gradually worsening, so slowly that he hadn't noticed the change until one day he couldn't clearly read a sign across the street. He'd been almost as stunned then as he was now, to realize he was going blind, that his best weapon would grow dull and useless and there was nothing he could do about it. He had accepted it, eventually, gotten used to it and learned to work around it, using his Sharingan more often to compensate. It helped, even if it accelerated the darkness. It had been an acceptable compromise, as he had always known he wouldn't live long enough to go fully blind. But while his world became incrementally darker with every passing year, he had never truly realized the full extent of his loss until now, when everything was suddenly bright and startlingly clear.

Itachi hadn't seen the world so clearly since he was a child. Since before duty forced him to obtain the Mangekyo, and his eyes and his life began the descent into shadow.

He looked to Sakura. For the first time he truly saw how beautiful her eyes were, like glittering beryls. It wasn't just the crystalline color that captivated him, it was the soft intensity of her sharp intellect behind them and the way they always seemed to see right through him, all the way down to the part of himself that even he could no longer see.

And her hair…it had always fascinated him, but now…those multifaceted strands of coral and blossom pink, the roots darkening to a more natural red, the way the firelight enhanced the colors and made it seem as if a glowing, sunset halo framed her exotically lovely face…. He wanted very much just then to reach out and weave his hands into those bright silken locks.

"Incredible," he said quietly.

For some reason, the way he said that one word caused a furious blush to color her cheeks. "I'm just glad I was able to help," Sakura replied. Itachi just continued to stare at her as if he was learning her face all over again. She felt a little flustered under his rapt attention. "You must be pretty tired after all that. Not to mention your overzealous workout. I still need to write down how the procedure worked. I'll let you get some sleep..."

Itachi shifted closer, leaned in until their faces were only inches apart. He trailed his fingertips down her face until they held her chin. "Stay," he murmured softly, and then captured her lips with his.

Sakura didn't argue, letting him pull her down on top of him. Who cared about medical notes when they could be doing this? She felt high, giddy with affection, both given and received. This must be what people called cloud nine. Itachi continued to kiss her softly and lingeringly, like he was thanking her. His fingers found their way into her hair and stayed there, even after their kiss ended and she reached down to pull the blankets over them both, snuggling against his chest with a contented sigh. After all the healings she was pretty tired, and was asleep within minutes.

Itachi remained awake, unable to sleep when everything was like new. If Sakura hadn't worn herself out healing him, he would have been tempted to keep her awake just to watch the way her lips moved when she talked and smiled, the way her eyes glittered in the light of the fire. Instead he contented himself with watching her sleep, how the delicate fan of her lashes moved as she dreamed, the rise and fall of her breathing and the soft palpitations of her pulse against her throat. He splayed the ends of her hair between his fingers and studied how the light caught them. He noticed for the first time the faint dappling of freckles across her cheeks.

She was so very beautiful to him.

The dark years of his life were now truly, literally over, it seemed. Mostly because of one fiercely determined and compassionate kunoichi. He had never known anyone like her. He owed her more than he could ever possibly repay.

'_It's never too late to change the direction of your life, do something that makes you happy_,' she'd told him earlier. Itachi still wasn't convinced such a thing was even possible, and if it were, he had no idea where to begin. What did he want for himself? What would make him happy?

Eventually his eyes grew heavy and he glanced to the window, mildly surprised to see the sky growing lighter with the coming dawn. He'd been thinking for nearly the entire night and still had no clear answer. Sakura was still curled against him, sound asleep, secure and trusting in a way he'd been incapable of understanding until very recently. Fingers still tangled in her hair, he slipped his other arm around her and turned on his side. She turned with him unconsciously, and he pulled her back against his chest, his face pressed close to the nape of her neck as he finally drifted to sleep.

* * *

Sakura made the trip into Moyama the next morning as planned. The fifteen mile run each way was the only exercise she was getting lately, and she'd come to look forward to it. The only downside was that in order to make the morning market, she had to get up ridiculously early. She'd left Itachi sleeping—or pretending to, as she doubted she could even roll over without waking him. Maybe he would make breakfast again when she got back.

The village was quiet and sleepy under the blanket of winter. Smoke piped thickly from nearly every chimney, and only those few residents with specific business were wandering through the frozen streets. She had a feeling the market would be sparse this morning.

It turned out she was right. She did what she could, buying some sausages and hardy squash, as well as a loaf of delicious looking cinnamon-raisin bread. There was always fresh bread at least, no matter what time of year. After making her purchases she headed over to the general store. In addition to her usual foray for fresh meat and produce, she had placed a special order for her favorite tea almost two weeks ago and hoped it would be in by now.

On the way, she passed the barber shop and it suddenly occurred to her that she hadn't had a trim in quite a while; the tips now reached past her collarbone. She debated stopping in for a minute, but then she remembered Itachi and the comments he'd made. He'd suggested she grow it out, said it would suit her. She hadn't missed the subtle hint that he would probably like that a lot, and smiled to herself as she thought about the way he always played with and ran his fingers through it. He seemed to have something of a small obsession with her hair. Who was she to deny him the little pleasures in life?

She kept walking, a radiant smile blooming as the winter wind played in her hair too.

Han the wagon driver, the store owner Tarou, and his son Makoto, were loitering around the register when she walked in. They were used to seeing her by now and greeted her in their typical frank, rural way. She said hello and asked about her tea, and while Tarou went in back to check for it she browsed the store for anything interesting.

She could hear them talking and gossiping about goings-on in town and what little news they had from the rest of the world. She mostly tuned them out, until one word sharply caught her attention.

_Kumogakure_.

Without appearing to, Sakura began listening to every word they said. Information about another hidden village's activities was always important. The Hokage was especially concerned with Cloud because of the fiasco over Sasuke. She doubted these rural civilians would know much, but sometimes civilians knew more than they realized, and usually didn't know not to talk about it.

"…scouts or messengers running all up and down the countryside. Several of our suppliers say they've been stopped by them on the roads, their wagons searched. Wonder what they're up to," Makoto was saying.

"Maybe they're preparing for war," Han suggested gruffly. The younger man looked at him in surprise. "Well that how it's done, ain't it? Sending messages and securing the border and all that?"

Sakura feigned interest in a book of quilting patterns and wandered a little closer. Cloud was probably searching high and low for Sasuke…that would explain the random searches and border control. It was extremely unlikely that Sasuke was still in Lightning, but it could be problematic for Sakura and Itachi. If they were scouring the country for foreign shinobi it would be unsafe to stay here much longer. The villagers didn't know where they were from, and as far as she knew only Junko knew they were shinobi. But to be safe, they may have to move to another location.

"Maybe you're right," the boy said. "The paper from yesterday says something about, uh…" He grabbed the paper in question and searched for the article, reading as he spoke. "Here: 'Skirmishes along the River-Fire border…' 'Two civilian villages in Fire attacked by hostile Rain ninjas…' 'Many casualties, both civilian and from Konoha'." He looked up at the old man. "Maybe the Cloud ninjas here heard about it and are taking, uh, what's it—precautions."

"Maybe. Rain ninjas, huh. Never heard of 'em. Well, I'm just glad whatever's happening's so far away. Last thing we need's a war coming. Always makes the market prices go sky high."

Makoto nodded sagely, and they moved on to other topics.

Sakura knew better than to think it was only precaution. Cloud wouldn't be raising security levels for a few skirmishes too far away to affect them. Something else was going on. She had a bad feeling it had to do with Sasuke's recent actions against Kumo, and consequently, Konoha would be dragged into it. The attacks by Rain nins troubled her as well. Rain was too small to have ever been a problem before, but Konoha had just recently learned that Akatsuki was most likely operating out of Rain and that their leader, Pein, was also the leader of Amegakure.

"Sorry, it's not in yet."

Realizing she was being addressed, Sakura turned quickly to find the store owner watching her from behind the counter. "Huh?"

"Your tea. It's not in yet."

"Oh." She had forgotten all about it, her thoughts now miles away. She forced a smile. "That's okay. I'll check back in a few days." She put the quilting guide back on the shelf and left the store with a deliberately casual air.

Outside, her cheerful expression fell and she began walking quickly out of town. She had to tell the Hokage what she'd learned. Tsunade obviously would know about the Rain attacks, but she wouldn't know that Cloud might be taking preliminary steps toward mobilization. There was no way to contact Konoha other than the post, but who knew how long that would take with half the roads closed for winter? Tsunade had said she would send Katsuyu to her for a briefing, but that wasn't for another three or four weeks. It couldn't wait that long.

Sakura began sprinting once she passed through the village gate, and rushed back to the cabin. When she got inside she found Itachi searching through the pantry, probably looking for breakfast ingredients. He took one look at her and knew something was amiss.

"What happened?"

Sakura quickly told him what she'd learned. "I have no way of passing on the information. I need to go back and tell the Hokage." Itachi regarded her silently, calm and collected as ever. "Do you think I'm overreacting?" she asked him.

"I think you should trust your instincts," he said. "If what you overheard is indeed connected to Konoha in any way then it's important that the Hokage learn of it as soon as possible. If it turns out to be nothing, no harm will be done."

Sakura nodded. "Better safe than sorry." She gave him a playful smile. "Will you make me another awesome breakfast before I go?"

Over their meal they talked more about what she'd discovered. Itachi confirmed that Akatsuki headquarters – if it could even be called that – was located in Amegakure and that Pein had control of the entire city. Things looked ominous all around, and Sakura ate quickly, anxious to get going. She didn't like leaving Itachi so soon after the last time, but she knew he was more capable of taking care of himself than ever. Indeed, their time here was drawing to a close in any event.

Itachi stood and went to the door with her. "Be careful in the open country, and while crossing the border," he cautioned.

"I will. You be careful too. If they come around here looking for shinobi…"

"I will be able to avoid capture," he said smoothly.

Sakura smiled faintly. "Right. Veteran missing-nin." She closed the distance between them, held his face in her hands and rose up to press a lingering kiss to his lips. "I'll be back as soon as I can." Itachi nodded and Sakura stepped back, slung her light pack over one shoulder, and left.

* * *

Much to her surprise and relief, Konoha was just as she'd left it. Maybe a little colder, but other than that everything was as usual. She'd worried the whole way, and the overdramatic part of her mind had even pictured returning to a smoking, desolate warzone. She definitely hadn't expected to find Izumo and Kotetsu half asleep on gate duty in the middle of what was apparently an extremely uneventful day.

Surprised as Sakura was to find everything normal, Tsunade was even more surprised to see her walk into her office unexpected and unannounced.

"Sakura! What are you doing here?" she demanded worriedly, clearly thinking something had happened to her or Itachi.

Sakura wasted no time reporting everything she'd learned from the unsuspecting villagers. When she finished, Tsunade sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"Well, that is troubling news. Of course I knew about the Rain attacks already. Several ANBU have been killed recently near the border, and then the villages… Ibiki thinks it's a distraction to draw our forces away from the village, but I'm not so sure. At any rate, I've had patrols around the village doubled, and the barrier is up. Nothing will slip past our guard."

"Well now I feel silly for rushing back here like this," Sakura said with a faint, self-conscious laugh.

"You did the right thing. There's no such thing as unnecessary information when it concerns other hidden villages, and the news about Cloud is indeed disturbing. I'll send out an ANBU team to investigate further. Now then, since you're here, tell me how your mission is going."

Sakura smiled. "It's going well. Excellent, actually." She gave a detailed report on Itachi's current condition, that he was well enough to train again, and how she had healed his eyes.

"Incredible," the Hokage remarked. "I definitely want to read your notes on that when you return. It sounds like we're almost ready to begin the next phase. How long would you estimate until he's ready?"

She thought about it a moment. "Three to four weeks, probably. Maybe less."

"Excellent."

"Is Naruto here?" she asked. "I haven't seen him in a while. I thought we might catch up before I left again."

"He's not," Tsunade said. "He's off training with the toads."

Sakura blinked. "…The toads."

The Hokage raised a brow, echoing her unspoken sentiment. "Mm. Specialized sage training on some distant sacred mountain. Who knows when he'll be back."

"Oh." It was disappointing that she wouldn't get to see her best friend for another long stretch of time. "I guess I'll get going then."

"Actually," Tsunade said, stopping her apprentice mid-turn. "Before you go, Shikamaru could use your help with some codebreaking. It shouldn't take long with you both working on it. He's down in room thirty-three."

"Oh. …okay." Feeling a little strange about the entire day so far, Sakura left the Hokage's office and headed downstairs.

Room thirty-three was the last in a long, dimly lit hallway of the archives wing. As she'd been told, Shikamaru was there, along with an analyst whom she didn't recognize.

"Sakura," Shikamaru said, surprised as she knocked and opened the door. "I didn't know you were in the village."

"I won't be for long," she replied, closing the door behind her. "But before I leave Hokage-sama wants me to help you with whatever you're working on."

Shikamaru sighed in relief. "Good. This thing's a pain in the ass."

The air was musty and thick with the smell of decades old books and files which were stacked and crammed into shelves all around the room. The window was open for ventilation, but the room was still permeated with the smell of _old_.

Sakura sat down at the table next to the analyst, who turned to her, pushed her bottle-thick glasses up her nose and said, "Hi. I'm Shiho."

She smiled at the frazzled-looking girl. "Sakura."

They explained the encrypted documents to her and Sakura quickly lost track of time as the three of them worked diligently at breaking the code. They worked well together, and were making good progress when suddenly the walls and floors rumbled and shook like an earthquake had hit. But the thunderous _boom_ outside in the distance indicated something far more alarming than an earthquake was happening.

"What the hell was that!" Shikamaru exclaimed.

The three of them jumped to their feet and rushed to the window. There had been an explosion. Several explosions, simultaneously. It looked like a third of the village was on fire. In the distance they could hear people shouting and screaming. Shinobi were speeding across the rooftops toward the commotion.

Sakura's heart thudded heavily in her chest. Her bad feeling had been right.

Konoha was under attack.

"Let's go!" Shikamaru shouted.

Together they leapt out of the open window and raced down the wall and into the chaotic streets.

* * *

Next chapter: _The Cataclysm_


	10. The Cataclysm

**Vespertine**

Chapter Ten: The Cataclysm

* * *

_Defense is paper thin_

_Just one touch, and I'd be in _

_Too deep to ever swim against the current_

_So let me slip away_

* * *

Itachi sat at the table, absently chewing on the last stick of staling dango as he gazed out the window into an opaque gray sky. Water dripped from the eave above where the icicles were melting away. Occasionally one would break off and fall to the ground, landing in the mushy snow with a soft swish.

Winter was just now coming to southern lands like his native Fire, but here it was already ending. Unlike other northern lands, the Lightning country was too wet and misty for the season to last long. Soon the snows would turn to rain, which would continueuntil spring. He'd been to this part of the world often enough in his travels as a missing-nin to remember.

Nearly three weeks had passed, and Sakura still hadn't returned.

It shouldhave taken her only a few days to reach Konoha traveling at shinobi speed, and she had been in a hurry. It should take only a few days to return as well. Two weeks were unaccounted for, and her continued absence troubled him more with every passing day.

Had Konoha changed its mind? Had Sakura been ordered not to return? Something could have happened regarding Sasuke, for better or worse, and his help was no longer needed, making the deal with Konoha void. Someone could have learned that he was alive, and it wasn't safe for Sakura to return lest she be followed. Something could have happened to her on her way back, perhaps connected to that very thing.

Itachi sighed and drank his rapidly cooling tea. There was no use in exacerbating his growing anxiety with speculation. He would wait another week before deciding what to do. Something would have to be done by then anyway; the cabin's food supply was running low. He had no money and no weapons to hunt with, and hunting with jutsu was largely unsuccessful. Soon he would be forced to leave one way or another.

The isolation had been peaceful, but often frustrating. Itachi had always liked spending time alone, though now he was beginning to believe that was partly because it had always been preferable to his available options for company. His partner in Akatsuki had been a tolerable companion; despite his brutish appearance, Kisame was intelligent and unusually perceptive. Those traits were double-edged, however, for his assumed commentary about Itachi's thoughts and motives had grown a little tiresome, and sometimes, alarming. More than once he'd thought the shark might be onto him and would have to be killed. Indeed, Kisame might have known about him all along; it turned out his former partner had his own secrets regarding Uchiha Madara.

His mind was definitely wandering too much if he was thinking about such things. Itachi was bored. He'd already read all the books Sakura brought back with her, some of them twice—and he'd come to the conclusion that her brain-eating zombie stories were rather perversely entertaining. He'd even played shougi against himself—no easy feat. He trained every day for hours, sometimes until he could barely walk from exhaustion, though he was pleased to no longer be unbearably weak and unfit. There was only so much he could do in this place to keep himself from obsessively thinking about things that were better left unexamined.

Sakura's company, her presence, was missed. He liked talking to her, or simply listening to her talk. He had come to enjoy their routine. But he also missed her for other reasons that were slightly unsettling. He had never craved affection, nor desired to give it to another, and yet he found himself wanting to feel her touch, to breathe the soft floral fragrance of her hair as he ran his fingers through it, to hear that little sound of pleasure she made when he kissed her. He wanted to feel her soft warmth curled against him as they slept.

He had let his guard down around her—repeatedly, and with increasingly less concern—something he hadn't done since he was very young, before he learned the hard way not to trust, to keep his thoughts and feelings locked away. It was relaxing and…liberating, to be able to let go in that way, to be himself: a person he still barely recognized.

Had this second chance at life, this fragile hope for redemption, really sparked such change in him? Or were these things always a part of who he was, buried beneath all of his carefully constructed layers of deception and apathy. It had to be the latter. Sakura was a remarkable and beautiful young woman, to be sure, but she was no sorceress, no irresistible seductress. She hadn't bewitched him, hadn't brought out anything in him that wasn't already there, waiting, only needing a chance and a reason to come alive. He wanted these things for himself.

The time spent here in this remote cabin with Sakura, he realized, had been the closest he had ever come to happiness in his entire life. He felt truly alive for the first time in years. He still had a duty to fulfill, but it was by his own choosing. When that duty was finished, he would be free to live his life the way he wanted.

Or perhaps not. That tenuous hope that he had finally allowed himself to believe in might not be possible after all, if Sakura's absence was an indication of Konoha's change of plans.

Finding his thoughts back where they started, Itachi frowned and sighed again. It aggravated him to not know anything, to have no way of even contacting anyone for answers. Frustrated, annoyed, and tired of thinking about it, he got up and went outside to train.

#

He was reading by the fire later that night when he felt the presence of chakra. It had been so long since he'd sensed anything but the natural forest life around the cabin that at first he was alarmed and his Sharingan activated from years of honed reflexes. A few moments later he recognized it—that signature which had become as familiar to him as his own.

Sakura.

He stood and waited, expecting her to rush in and breathlessly tell him what had delayed her return. Instead, it was a good two minutes before he heard her footsteps crunching lightly through the melting snow. She was walking. He frowned slightly. Her steps sounded on the wooden planks of the porch, and a moment later the door opened.

With one glance, he knew she was not okay. Physically she was unhurt, but her face gave it away: she was exhausted, mentally and emotionally worn down, her normally bright eyes shadowed and haunted.

Sakura stopped, slowly dropped her pack from her shoulder, and locked eyes with him. Her expression was unreadable, which was rare for her. Then she rushed forward and threw her arms around him. A few moments later she burst into tears, sobbing silently against his chest. It was the kind of crying people do against their will; when the strain becomes too much, they can't take it anymore and it just breaks out of them. Itachi had experienced it only once in his life, in the aftermath of _that_ night.

Something terrible had happened to her.

Itachi wasn't expecting the strong wave of relief that hit him then, forcing him to acknowledge how truly worried about her he'd been. He held her and slowly stroked her hair, an action, he realized, that comforted them both. His mind ran wild trying to guess what could possibly have happened. She clung to him, sniffling softly until she eventually calmed herself.

Her eyes were red and puffy when she looked up at him, tear tracks shining on her face.

"Konoha was attacked by Akatsuki."

It was rare for something to shock him enough to visibly react, but this did. His surprise showed clearly on his face. He'd known nothing of such a plan, and he never would have thought they would engage in a direct assault with only a few of them left. Then he recalled that Akatsuki had recently gained four new members.

"Sasuke…" he murmured, a hard knot forming in his gut.

Sakura was confused at first, but then realized what he was thinking and shook her head. "No. It was Pein."

Itachi was glad his brother had nothing to do with it, but he was alarmed for Konoha's sake. _Pein_. All the members of Akatsuki combined couldn't inflict the kind of damage that their leader and his Rinnegan could. Pein was a force unto himself.

He was even more relieved for her safety than before. Reaching out, he guided her to sit down in front of the fire. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

"The village was almost completely destroyed," she continued tremulously. She took a shaky breath and closed her eyes, on the verge of tears again. "It all happened so fast…"

* * *

Sakura ran as fast as she could in the direction of the chaos. So many people were running the opposite way trying to escape the danger that she had to weave around them, which slowed her down. Shikamaru was a little ahead of her, and further down the street in the distance she saw his father Shikaku and another jounin emerge into the intersection from a side street. They caught sight of the two of them and paused, intending to group up.

Suddenly there was a flash of light and the building on her left exploded into the street. Sakura was knocked backward by the shockwave. People all around were screaming and fleeing for their lives. Uninjured but a little stunned from the force of the blast, she shakily pushed herself to her feet and looked around. The street was now blocked by the debris of what had once been her favorite ice cream shop. Sakura leapt up onto the rooftop of the next building over—now missing a wall—and spotted Shikamaru on the other side of the mountain of rubble. He had turned back to check on her, and looked relieved when he caught sight of her. She waved briefly that she was alright. He nodded once, and took off to join his dad.

Another loud rumble came from a few blocks over, and again the ground quaked. Sakura turned toward the sound and her eyes went wide. A gigantic centipede had burst from the ground and rose into the sky, dwarfing the buildings around it. It was the biggest creature she'd ever seen. She shot off in that direction just as it dove and careened down the avenue, its hulking body smashing everything it encountered.

A little girl had fallen in the street, carelessly knocked down by the panicking crowd. An old woman ran toward her, screaming something that was drowned out by other screams and the flailing insect, which was careening straight toward them.

There was no time to think. Putting everything she had into her speed, Sakura leapt into the street and headed off the monster, flooded chakra through her arm and smashed her fist into the underbelly of the enormous segmented body. The shock of her blow reverberated through the insect, cracking the stone-like carapace wide open. The creature went flying back down the street, crashing end over end until it collided with another building and lay dead among the dust and rubble.

Grimly pleased, she turned to the petrified woman and child. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," the little girl whimpered, hugging her leg to her chest.

"Thank you!" the old woman gasped, holding the shaking child's shoulders.

Sakura knelt and examined the girl's knee. It was badly skinned and bleeding, but easily mended with a little chakra. The girl wiped the tears from her dirty face and thanked her. Sakura smiled.

Someone shouted her name from across the street. She turned and saw her old academy teacher running toward her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, breathing hard from exertion. He looked down the street and saw the dead monster, then looked back to her and his eyes widened in realization.

"Iruka-sensei…what the hell is going on?"

"It's Akatsuki! They're attacking the village to try and find Naruto!"

Shock flooded through her. "_Akatsuki!_" Sakura recalled what Itachi had told her of Akatsuki's plans and movements. "I never thought they would attack us directly…"

The ground shook again and the sky lit up with another explosion a few blocks away. A group of chuunin who'd been examining the dead centipede waved urgently to Iruka. He turned to go to them, but then looked back over his shoulder at her. "You should get to the hospital and tend to the wounded. The place is already filling up."

Sakura didn't want to go to the hospital. She was furious and she wanted to fight, wanted to smash up the invading Akatsuki like she'd smashed their summoned monster. But she knew Iruka was right. She could fight…but so could everyone else. She was one of the few who could save the injured and dying.

"Right," she said firmly. Iruka left with the other shinobi, and Sakura waited until the old woman and girl had safely escaped down the street before turning and running the opposite way.

The hospital was in a state of panic. On-duty medics and nurses ran everywhere as the casualties flooded in, trying to make room for them all, setting up makeshift beds on the floor, on desktops, counters, anywhere they could. Off-duty staff was rushing in, some carrying more wounded, some injured themselves on their way through the village-turned-warzone. Sakura ran up the steps and grabbed a man about to collapse, hauled him inside. He had massive trauma to the torso and she set to work on him right there in the lobby, which had already been turned into an emergency triage.

Occasionally the ground and walls shook from nearby explosions, rattling the windows, but the medics and hospital staff barely noticed. Whether minutes or hours crawled past, Sakura couldn't tell.

It was every healer's nightmare. All around her, villagers were suffering, civilian and shinobi alike. Moans of the dying echoed in her ears. Cries from those in excruciating pain, sobs of those afraid to die. And they did die. For every one saved, another didn't make it. There was only so much the nurses and surgeons could do. There weren't enough medics, and those present didn't have enough chakra to heal everyone.

To Sakura's dismay, Shizune was missing and everyone was looking to _her_ for directions. Even the new class of trainees had been put to work, but they were so inexperienced and scared most of them could barely keep it together. They might slip up and possibly kill their patient, or themselves, so she redirected them to assist the nurses; administering morphine, affixing tourniquets, applying bandages.

Being the most skilled, Sakura treated the worst of the injuries and stabilized the patients, then let the other medics and surgeons take over while she moved on to the next. It was overwhelming and maddening and terrifying, and if she stopped for one second to take it all in she knew she would have a breakdown. So she focused with a fierce intensity. _One wound at a time. One patient at a time. Keep your head clear. Don't think about it. Just do it._ Blood stained her hands, her knees, her clothes. Sweat dripped from her brow and her energy was draining, but she fought on.

Suddenly the streets outside fell eerily silent. An ominous stillness hung in the air for several heartbeats…and then a deafening sound unlike anything she'd ever heard before filled her ears. The ground shook hard enough to knock people off their feet. The windows shattered. Something large and heavy fell on Sakura from behind, pinning her to the floor. Then everything went black.

The world came back slowly, beginning with a pounding in her head and a ringing in her ears. A cloud of thick dust obscured her surroundings and invaded her lungs, and she immediately began to cough. That heavy weight still bore down upon her, and as she pushed her body upward, she discovered the mass was soft and warm against her back. The mass moved when she stirred, and she sat up and looked over her shoulder at the corpulent, blue and white striped creature hovering over her. "Katsuyu…."

The slug's eyestalks swiveled in her direction. "I reached you just in time," she said in her soft, wispy voice. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…somehow," she murmured thickly, still a little dazed. Looking down at herself, she saw that a fine coating of the slug's viscous, chakra-infused mucus covered her arms and legs, acting as a salve to heal the cuts and scrapes she'd just received. "What happened?"

The Hokage's summon remained silent, looking as somber and aggrieved as an expressionless mollusk could. Katsuyu wasn't the only thing alarmingly quiet. That deathly stillness hung in the air once more.

Crawling forward on her hands and knees, Sakura was suddenly aware of aches and pains that hadn't been there a few minutes ago and wondered how she'd been injured. The floor had been reduced to jagged chunks of concrete and linoleum, and she deduced that it breaking beneath her was what inflicted the cuts and bruises.

When the the dust cloud finally dispersed, the shock of what she saw took her breath away and turned her stomach to lead. Her eyes burned, her whole body trembled.

The hospital was gone, demolished to rubble all around her. The buildings around it were leveled as well, leaving a clear panoramic view of her surroundings.

A vast crater spanned where the heart of the village had once been.

Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. There were no words for this. The shock was all-consuming, rendering her completely numb. A long minute passed, and then her mind began to race with unanswerable thoughts and questions. What had been done to her beloved home? _Why_ was this happening?

There were stirrings of movement around her, and Sakura suddenly remembered. "The patients…!" She scrambled to get up, to find them amid the rubble and dig them out if she had to, but Katsuyu touched her shoulder.

"I am already attending to them," she stated softly. Sakura now noticed several more of the slug's bodies in the surrounding area, lifting debris and administering her healing fluids to everyone she encountered. "Your chakra levels are low. Please don't overstrain yourself. They will be alright."

Someone stumbled into her line of sight, and she looked over to see a jounin sag to his knees a few feet away. The swollen veins around his eyes identified him as a Hyuuga. His head was bleeding and he looked like he may have sustained a concussion. Katsuyu slid over to inspect him.

Something in the distance caught Sakura's attention: a large cloud of smoke had formed at the center of the massive crater. "What is that?" she wondered aloud.

The jounin heard her and followed her gaze, assessing the disturbance with his bloodline limit. "It's Naruto!" he exclaimed.

Sakura squinted, focusing intently on the figures taking shape within the cloud. _Naruto!_ She didn't know what her teammate could do in this situation, but just the fact that he was here was a huge relief. Naruto always did _something_, no matter how bad things were.

"He's facing off against the shinobi who attacked us...all six of him."

Her relief quickly evaporated, replaced by fear. Naruto was in a confrontation with Pein? That was exactly what the Akatsuki leader had come for—to capture the jinchuuriki. She started to move, but was hindered by her injuries and realized that in her current state she would only get herself killed by going down there. Naruto would be distressed and distracted by her presence as well, would put her safety before his own and be more vulnerable than if he were alone. She couldn't help him, but worried suddenly about her other teammates. Where were Kakashi and Sai and Yamato…?

"Sakura. You must go to Tsunade-sama immediately. She needs you." The slug sounded distressed.

Reluctant to lose sight of Naruto but anxious to find her mentor, she nodded. "Where is she?"

Katsuyu was silent a moment, searching for her master through the link that bound them together. The membranous tips of her eyestalks bulged. "Oh!"

"What?"

The slug's rounded head turned toward the crater. "She's down there."

Sakura peered as hard as she could, but all she could make out were a few dark specks within the swirling cloud of dust.

"She intends to fight Pein," Katsuyu continued worriedly, "but she doesn't have the strength. She released her Souzou Saisei technique when she sent me to heal the villagers."

If Tsunade had used her restoration jutsu on the entire village, her chakra would be draining rapidly. It would only be a matter of minutes before…. "What's going on? I can't see anything from here," Sakura asked the Hyuuga, a hint of panic creeping into her voice.

The man didn't answer for a moment, and then, "…Naruto protected the Hokage from an attack! Amazing…he took out one of Pein's bodies with a single blow!"

A few moments later one of the figures below began moving their way, eventually revealing itself as one of Naruto's toad summons. It landed a few feet behind them, carrying Tsunade, who was nearly unconscious.

"Shishou!"

Sakura rushed to the Hokage's side and took her shaking hands, now thin and aged. She was severely weakened, and the youth illusion she wore at all times had vanished, revealing the true form of her fifty-five years.

"It's all right now," Tsunade panted. "Naruto is back." Supported by Sakura, she sank to her knees and rested her head on her apprentice's shoulder. Sakura held her master in her arms, nothing she could do but to let her rest. Within a few minutes she was asleep, and Sakura carefully laid her down. Two ANBU stood nearby, guarding her.

Everyone's attention returned to the battle. Sakura still couldn't see a thing with the fight stirring up more dust than ever, but the Hyuuga man provided astonishing commentary on what he saw. Battling summons, strange jutsu…and then he exclaimed that Naruto was down, pinned to the ground by long spikes driven through his limbs. Sakura was sick with worry for him, going crazy from not being able to see for herself.

Then the Hyuuga nearly had a fit. "Hinata-sama!"

Sakura's head whipped around in surprise. "What!"

"Hinata-sama jumped in front of Naruto…she tried to save him! Pein knocked her back…she's…she's not moving…"

Sakura gaped at him, but before she could even try to process that information, a wave of intense pressure washed over them and stole her breath; she had felt that same angry, burning sensation once before. It was the Kyuubi's chakra. A terrifying roar reached their ears and left no doubt; Naruto had lost control.

Sakura turned frantically to the Hyuuga. "What's happening!"

He stammered, stunned nearly speechless by what he was seeing. "I...I don't know what to say…. I can see…six tails! At this rate he might fully transform!"

"_Six_…_!_" Two more than when it happened last time, and back then they'd nearly lost him to the demon. He had nearly killed them all as well. Though her legs still trembled, Sakura forced herself to stand. "Katsuyu," she called to the slug hovering over her master, "tell everyone to get out of here and take shelter."

Suddenly there was a massive blast of pure energy at the center of the crater, which Sakura recognized as one of the Kyuubi's attacks. A minute later the cloud of dust and smoke began moving across the empty expanse. "What's going on?"

"Naruto and Pein are getting further and further from the village," the Hyuuga explained excitedly. "It looks like Pein is fleeing from the Kyuubi's power!"

The toad who brought Tsunade began to laugh heartily. "Hah! Take that, ya bastard!"

Sakura whirled on him. "This is nothing to laugh about!" she said severely. "Now is our chance to get Hinata. And we have to do something about Naruto…he's dangerous when he's like this; he can't recognize friend from foe!"

The toad sobered contritely and Sakura climbed onto his back, holding onto his collar as he bounced away, Katsuyu and the Hyuuga man following at a distance. Up ahead, another group was speeding toward the center of the destruction, and as she got closer she recognized Team Gai. They reached the tiny figure on the ground first, and she joined them a minute later.

Sakura immediately went to Hinata and began healing. Tenten knelt beside them silently, her face lined with worry. The Hyuuga heiress had been stabbed through the stomach with a metal rod, but thankfully her vitals were missed. She would be okay. The others talked excitedly around her, filling each other in on what they knew and what they'd seen. Sakura listened absently, focusing on Hinata, fighting against her own exhausted body to help her friend.

Then Neji said something to the other Hyuuga that caught her attention. "But _why_ did she do it?" He was concerned about his cousin, but obviously baffled as to why she would put herself in such a situation.

_Because she's in love with Naruto_, Sakura wanted to say, but kept silent. She didn't want to cause trouble for her friend. And Naruto…what about his insane reaction? Of course he would be upset and angry over anyone getting hurt because of him, but to immediately and completely lose control and sprout _six_ tails…? Was there something going on she didn't know about?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Katsuyu. "Naruto suppressed the demon himself. He's now facing off with Pein one last time."

Sakura started in surprise. Suppressed it _himself_? How was that possible?

Gai and Lee wanted to go offer backup, but Katsuyu advised them against it, telling them Naruto didn't need it. "Part of me is with Naruto now," she explained. "He has a plan. Let's have faith in him."

The Hyuugas looked skeptical, but everyone else reluctantly agreed. They would have to believe in Naruto. If he had the strength to suppress the demon fox from within…he could do anything.

Hinata stirred and moaned softly. The wound was closed, but Sakura couldn't waste precious chakra removing the raw soreness. Her opaque eyes opened, and with some effort she was able to sit up and look around. "Naruto…"

"He's alright," Tenten said. "He's still fighting Pein."

Hinata smiled wanly, clearly still worried. "Thank you, Sakura," she said quietly.

"I'm just glad you're okay. That was crazy, Hinata..."

"I know," she admitted. "But I had to."

Sakura understood. She wanted to help Naruto too, though for different reasons. Love gave people a unique form of courage.

A few minutes later, Katsuyu reported again. "Naruto defeated the sixth Pein." Murmurs of surprise and encouragement went round.

"How is he? Is he injured?" Sakura asked worriedly.

"He's exhausted, but he's fine."

Hinata sagged with relief, putting her face in her hands. Katsuyu went on to tell them that Naruto was heading for the location of the "real Pein," whatever that meant. Team Gai wanted to go after him again, but the slug reiterated that he didn't want any help and refused to give his location, leaving them frustrated and stuck.

"You would do more good by helping the villagers," she chastised, as sternly as her gentle voice would allow. "There are people trapped beneath the rubble, and a Byakugan would be of great use."

"Katsuyu is right," Sakura agreed, "everyone who can move should be helping those who can't." With nods and murmurs of agreement, everyone headed off to help where they could.

"I'm going too," Hinata said, standing shakily.

"I didn't mean _you_. You need to rest."

"But I can walk, can't I?" she argued. "And there's nothing wrong with my eyes. I want to help."

Sakura shook her head in fond exasperation. It was impossible to keep the girl down, literally and figuratively. It reminded her of someone else she knew. "Alright," she assented. "Ten, will you make sure she doesn't overdo it?"

"Of course" Tenten answered, supporting Hinata around the shoulders. The two of them began to carefully pick their way through the rubble.

Sakura sighed and ran her filthy hands through her filthy tangled hair. She didn't even want to imagine what she looked like right now. Returning to Tsunade, she grew worried upon finding her master not asleep, but unconscious. Katsuyu assured her that her vitals were fine and she was stable, and then split off a miniature version of herself to accompany Sakura around the village.

Like everyone else, she wandered in search of people who needed help. It was difficult to find her way with landmarks destroyed and streets covered by debris, and movement through the destruction was precarious and slow. She went to the ruins of the academy first, in case there were any children trapped or needing help. When she was only about a block away, something bright caught her attention. Looking more closely, dread seized her as she registered what she was seeing; a shock of white hair, attached to a pair of green-vested shoulders, slumped lifelessly.

"Kakashi!" she cried, her feet already carrying her across the distance. She frantically pulled away the rubble pinning him. He had several minor injuries and looked like he'd been in a hell of a fight, but nothing serious enough to be life threatening. At first she thought he was just unconscious, but as she held him close to lift him from the debris she realized she couldn't feel his chakra. At all. Eyes widening in panic, she quickly laid him out and pressed two fingers to his throat. His pulse was so faint and weak she couldn't feel it until she probed with chakra. His heart sputtered weakly, barely beating.

His hitai-ate was pushed up, revealing his scarred eye, and she knew then that he'd used his transplanted Sharingan past its limits. He was dying from chakra depletion.

"Shit! Kakashi, _no!_" She removed the little slug from her shoulder and placed her on Kakashi's chest. "Katsuyu, please help me!"

"He's…" the slug began.

"He's still alive!" She glared at her unconscious team leader. "Do you hear me, Kaka-sensei! You better not die!"

"Sakura, your chakra…"

"That's why I need your help, damn it!" she shouted angrily. The slug didn't argue further, and began to thrum softly as she too poured energy into the dying man. Several seconds passed, and Sakura nearly sobbed with relief when his heart rate picked up, intermittently at first, and then with increasing regularity. He was breathing.

"I'm sorry, that's all I have," Katsuyu declared after a few minutes, as her body began to disintegrate. This particular embodiment of the summon was small and didn't have much chakra; when it was gone, she went with it.

Sakura fought on alone. She had almost nothing left; it was all she could do to stay conscious. When she was certain his heart would continue to beat steadily, that he could breathe on his own, she stopped. She was so tired. So, _so_ tired. Her eyes wouldn't stay open, and when she tried to focus she became dizzy. All she wanted was to lie down and rest, and so she did, falling there beside Kakashi, one hand still on his chest as if to make sure she could still feel the rise and fall of his breathing. She let out a slow, exhausted sigh, and then darkness overtook her.

When she woke again Kakashi was sitting beside her, slouched over tiredly with his elbows on his knees. He looked like hell. She probably looked just as bad, and certainly felt like it. "I'm glad you're okay," she murmured, smiling at him weakly.

He smiled back. "Me too. What a strange trip that was…" His tone was light, but his eyes were troubled. "Sakura…"

"If you even try to tell me I shouldn't have done everything in my power to save you, I'll knock you unconscious again," she grunted, lethargically sitting up. Her vision was no longer spinning; that was a good sign, at least.

Kakashi chuckled feebly, but quickly sobered. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"Anytime."

"Why are you here?" he wondered. "Did something happen with Itachi?"

"I came to warn Tsunade-sama because I overheard some locals talking about suspicious activity and I had a bad feeling." She looked around despondently. "I guess I was right."

"A few minutes ago Katsuyu told everyone that Naruto defeated Pein," he informed, sounding a little amazed by that fact. "I was about to go find him, but I waited for you to wake up so you'd know I was okay."

"I'm so glad it's over," she sighed. Her eyes scanned their surroundings, fully absorbing the extent of destruction. She looked to Kakashi again. "Where are Sai and Yamato?"

"They were on a mission to find Kabuto, but Yamato was undoubtedly alerted when Naruto broke his seal, so I'm sure they're rushing back now."

She nodded, glad to know they were okay. "What about Tsunade-sama?"

"They're putting up tents as temporary shelters on the outskirts of the village. She's been moved there. You shouldn't have any trouble finding her."

"You're going to find Naruto?" she asked, watching him stand— very slowly. He nodded and offered her a hand. She shot him a stern look as she rose. "Don't push it, Kaka-sensei. You nearly died." Impulsively she moved forward and wrapped her arms around his middle. "You scared me half to death," she murmured into his torn and dirty flak vest.

"I know," he said solemnly, patting her shoulders, then ruffling her hair. "I promise to take it easy."

"You'd better," she reinforced, but smiled after him as he left.

The Hokage's tent was as easy to find as Kakashi said, with the ANBU detail standing guard around it. They parted the entrance flaps and let her through. She was surprised to find Ino kneeling at the Hokage's side.

Ino turned her head at the intrusion of light and gasped. "Sakura! I didn't even know you were here!"

Sakura knelt beside her. "How is she?"

They gazed at their Hokage and mutual teacher, nearly unrecognizable, lying tiny and frail and aged on a white bedroll. "She's in a coma," Ino replied, tucking her sweaty bangs behind her ear. "There's nothing we can do for her; she has to recover on her own…"

"She will," Sakura said with quiet firmness, holding her mentor's wrinkled hand between hers. Ino appeared to be on the verge of tears. Her friend cared for and respected the Hokage, but they weren't that close. Something else was wrong. "Ino…what is it?"

The blonde sniffled a few times, and then began crying in earnest. "Ch…Chouji's dad was killed," she whimpered. "Chouji witnessed it…he's really…"

Sakura's heart wrenched. The three teammates' families were all extremely close, and Chouza was—had been—like an uncle to Ino and Shikamaru. "Oh, Ino I'm sorry…."

Ino brushed the back of her hand across her eyes, mainly succeeding in smearing more dirt across her face. "I—I really want to be with him right now, but I didn't know you were here and there was no one else to watch over Tsunade-sama."

"What do you mean," she asked uneasily. A dread intuition came over her. "Where's Shizune?"

Ino just stared at her with an expression of morose surprise. Then Sakura realized that her fellow apprentice had been absent from every place she would have expected to find her during the turmoil. Not at Tsunade's side. Not at the hospital.

"_No_…."

Ino's agonized expression left no doubt. "She was trying to reach my dad's investigation team to tell them about Pein's secret…but then one of Pein's bodies found us and…."

"Y-you were there?" Sakura choked, the first tears falling from her eyes. Shizune had been like a big sister ever since Sakura had become the Hokage's apprentice. And Tsunade would be devastated; she loved Shizune like a daughter.

Ino nodded miserably. "I'm so sorry, Sakura. It happened so fast…we couldn't even fight him…"

She met Ino in a hug and they cried together, sharing their grief. When they were too exhausted to cry anymore they sat in silence together by the Hokage's bedside.

Sometime later, a call went around the hastily built tent city: Naruto had returned. Sakura wiped the tear tracks and dirt from her face with the inside hem of her shirt, and then wiped Ino's as well, quietly teasing her about the impractical size of her clothing. They shared a much-needed if very small laugh and went outside to join the welcome party.

The entire village had gathered to greet the returning hero, even the injured who had to be supported by their comrades. Naruto was as dirty, bloodstained and ragged as everyone else, and looked completely bewildered by the cheering crowd as he stood with Kakashi.

Sakura nudged her way through the throng of people and marched straight for her teammate. Fear, concern, anger, love, relief, admiration, gratitude…they all rushed around inside of her like a tornado as she neared him. His eyes widened considerably when he saw her; like everyone else, he hadn't known she was in the village.

"Sakura—" he began.

And was promptly cut short by her left hook.

"Reckless idiot!" she scolded, shocking the people around her who probably thought she had some nerve, assaulting their savior. Naruto doubled over, too exhausted to withstand her blow as he normally would. She caught him by the shirtfront and stood him up, then pulled him into a tight embrace. "I was so worried," she whispered against his shoulder. "Thank you."

She pulled away and they grinned at each other, then she stood back as Naruto was hoisted into the air by the cheering crowd. Finally, this was his moment: the recognition and admiration he'd always dreamed of, that she knew he would achieve someday.

Sakura just wished it didn't have to be the result of something so tragic and devastating.

#

Over the next several days the village bustled with activity as every available person helped to rebuild their homes and restore Konoha. Yamato and Sai had returned, and now Yamato was something of a hero around town as well—thanks to his wood-element jutsu, Konoha would be rebuilt in no time.

Sakura's time was divided between the medical tent and the Hokage's bedside. After checking on her one afternoon, she went out for a walk to take in the state of things around the village and just get a break from her exhausting routine for a while.

With her shishou's condition unchanged, the senior council would be meeting today to decide how to proceed. Sakura was extremely anxious about it, knowing the deviousness of Danzou and the other elders. It occurred to her that she really had no idea _who_ was in charge at the moment. The village had just sort of banded together in the wake of tragedy and everything was running smoothly on its own. The Hokage would be proud of her people.

Without any real destination plan, she eventually wandered toward the village gates. To her surprise, Naruto was there, sitting at the base of a large lumber pile, apparently taking a break as well. They hadn't seen much of each other over the past few days, save for when he came to see the Hokage. The rest of the time he was utilizing his bunshins as a one-man construction crew. He smiled when he saw her.

"How's Tsunade-baa?"

"The same," she answered, sitting next to him.

The lack of news disheartened him. "There's so much I want to tell her," he sighed.

"I'm sure she'll wake up soon," she tried to reassure, but hardly sounded convincing when she was worried and upset about it herself. She studied him carefully as he stared at the ground between his boots.

Naruto was changed. For the first time in all the years she'd known him, there was uncertainty in his demeanor. He'd become quieter, more pensive. She could tell something had happened in his final confrontation with Pein that had shaken his brash confidence, but she chose not to ask him about it. If he wanted to talk about it, he would.

"Have you seen Hinata?" she asked tentatively.

"No. I heard her clan has her under constant escort, after…" A cautious little smile played on his lips. "I really do need to talk to her though. Eventually."

"What will you say?"

Again, he didn't answer immediately. "I…I don't know. I mean, I _think_ I do, but…." He sighed and bent forward, rubbing his hands over his face. "There's _so_ much in my head right now, Sakura. I can't deal with it all the way I should."

Sakura gave a small, understanding smile and put her hand on his arm. "I know. It'll all work out, I promise."

Before he could reply they heard their names called from the direction of the gates, and were both highly surprised to see two nostalgic faces. Tazuna and Inari, the old bridge builder and his grandson from their very first genin mission in the Wave country were walking toward them. They rose to meet them, exchanged greetings and learned they were there as carpenters to help in the rebuilding. Kakashi came upon them a few minutes later and they made small talk for a while.

Then the old man asked about Sasuke and the cheerful mood instantly dropped. Naruto displayed a surprising turn of character by making up some nonchalant excuse for the absence of their former teammate, and they awkwardly laughed it off. The Wave citizens had no reason not to buy their explanation, and soon went on their way to meet with the construction foreman. The three teammates were left somber and moody.

"I understand now…how Sasuke felt," Naruto stated quietly, staring after the carpenters. "I know what revenge is now. I thought I understood him back then…but I really didn't." He gave a short, humorless laugh. "No wonder nothing I ever said got through."

"Naruto, you can't blame yourself for that."

"Sasuke would have chosen the same path regardless of whether you understood or not," Kakashi added.

"I know that," he said. "But if I can't understand his pain...no wonder he wouldn't even fight with me! This time, one way or another…we _will_ come to an understanding. Basically I'm gonna kick the crap out of him," he laughed.

Sakura didn't always understand his way of thinking, and now was definitely one of those times, but he suddenly looked and sounded so much like his old '_I can do anything!_' self that she couldn't help but smile. He always had the power to make her believe that everything would be okay.

Thinking of Sasuke made her think of Itachi, and it suddenly occurred to her how long she'd been gone. In the wake of everything, she hadn't had time to think about anything but the day ahead of her and the immediate tasks at hand. She hadn't even had a chance to salvage what belongings she could from the rubble of her demolished house. She missed Itachi, and wished he was there because there were moments when she really just wanted someone to hold her. Was he wondering why she hadn't returned? Was he okay?

"Hey, you guys had lunch yet?" Naruto said, interrupting her thoughts. "Old man Teuchi's set up a temporary ramen stand and he's letting people eat for free. Let's go!"

They started down the road, but hadn't gone far when the sound of something swiftly coming up behind them made them turn.

Kiba was riding up to them on Akamaru. "There you guys are!" They skidded to a halt, master and pet both a little winded. "Listen to this! Tsunade's been dismissed as Hokage!"

"What!" Naruto blurted.

"Yeah! The new Hokage is some guy named Danzou. I don't know much about him, but apparently he's pretty shady."

Sakura's mouth fell open. "_Danzou!_"

"Shit," Kakashi muttered, "I have a bad feeling about this…."

"That's not the only thing," Kiba went on. "This new Hokage's given the order to hunt down and kill Sasuke."

"What the hell do you mean!" Naruto shouted in outrage.

"I don't know all the details. It's just what I heard."

"It's not that surprising that they weren't willing to wait for Tsunade to recover," Kakashi explained rationally, though his dark eye was troubled and angry. "And honestly it's not surprising that Danzou managed to get himself named Hokage. It's what he's wanted for years, so of course he seized the opportunity. As far as Sasuke is concerned, well…he _is_ a missing-nin. The punishment for that is usually death. It's only because Tsunade is so lenient that he hasn't been killed yet."

Naruto glared at him, but said nothing. Even he couldn't argue with the cold, hard truth of the matter.

Sakura brimmed with shock and anger. She had dreaded something like this happening, but how had the old bastard pulled it off? Why would the council elect a new leader so quickly, and why would they choose _Danzou_ of all people when she knew they'd talked before about electing Kakashi? Kiba had no idea how right he was when he said Danzou was shady. Some scheme was definitely at work here.

"I'm going to go see Danzou right now," she growled.

Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder. "Wait, Sakura. Storming in there and yelling at him won't solve anything." He moved closer and gave her a pointed look, lowering his voice for her alone. "Besides, _you_ need to stay clear of his notice right now."

"But Tsunade-sama hasn't even woken up! This isn't right! And then there's Sasuke…I can't stand by and let this happen. Not when we're so close—" She cut herself off, realizing she was about to say something about her classified mission.

Naruto was too agitated to notice their interchange. "I'm going too."

"Both of you calm down," Kakashi ordered, his voice hardening. "You have to stay cool-headed or it will only make things worse."

"How can I stay calm?" he shouted. "I'm not going to let this happen!"

He turned to go, but Kakashi quickly grabbed hold of him. "I said wait!" His voice was low and harsh. "Danzou knows you'd react like this. What will you do if you see him?"

"I won't do anything," he assured. "I'm just going to talk to him."

Kakashi sighed, exasperated. "You should already know he has his own agenda and nothing you say will matter. I understand that when it comes to Sasuke you can't just let it go, but you need to _think_. The jounin haven't yet voted to make it official, but for now Danzou is acting Hokage. One wrong move and you'll end up in jail."

"I don't care! I'm going!"

"You're a jinchuuriki, Naruto. He wants you under control and out of the way. If you play into his hands and become a nuisance, he will put you under lockdown. If that happens you won't be able to leave the village…" He gave him a measured look.

Naruto stared at him for a long moment, then he caught on to what their team leader was implying and his tense posture relaxed. Kakashi released his arm. "I'll go find out what I can and see where the other jounin stand about this. For now, keep your head down." He looked at Sakura. "Both of you."

A minute after Kakashi left, Kiba left as well to spread the news further, leaving Sakura and Naruto alone. "Let's go eat," she said to him, putting on a smile she didn't really feel.

They headed across town to Ichiraku, which was now just a small tent where the owner and his daughter cooked up ramen all day and handed it out in paper bowls for everyone working hard to rebuild the village. Naruto and Sakura received their meals and located a clear spot on the riverbank to sit down and eat. The ramen was almost as good as usual and the sun was out, and so they tried to be cheerful. Sakura recalled wanting to share a bowl of ramen with her best friend and catch up. That was only a few days ago. So much had happened, it felt like years since then.

Sai found them after a little while and took a seat on Sakura's other side. She noticed that he seemed unusually troubled.

"Hey – you used to work under Danzou in Root," Naruto realized.

"…Yes," He looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Tell us what you know about him."

Sai just stared at them for a long moment, but finally said, "I can't."

"Why not?"

"I literally can't talk about it." Sai stuck out his tongue, revealing a strange tattoo-like mark.

"What the hell is _that_?"

"Is that a seal?" Sakura ventured.

Sai nodded. "All Root members have it. If I try to talk about him I'll have a seizure and be unable to move or speak."

"…Wow. He must be _really_ shady if he goes to that kind of effort to keep his secrets," Naruto muttered.

"Root is a classified sector of ANBU," Sai explained. "We've done a lot of dirty deeds to protect Konoha, so Danzou made sure none of it can get out, even if we're tortured."

Sakura was appalled. "I don't get how he can do something like that to his own men…"

"That's how he protects Konoha. You may not agree with his methods, but he does care about the village."

They both glared at him. "How can you defend him?" Sakura demanded fiercely. "He's usurped the Hokage through some kind of underhanded manipulation!"

"And he's put a death warrant on Sasuke!" Naruto added.

Sai was taken aback. "I haven't heard anything about that…."

Sakura regarded him intently. "Sai…you were part of Root, but now you're a member of our team. You're our friend, and I believe your motives when you first joined us are different than how you feel now. We need to know where you stand."

Sai looked back and forth between them. "I—"

He stopped suddenly as they all realized they were no longer alone. It was only Kakashi, however.

"Yo."

"What did you find out?" Naruto asked him, diverting from the previous conversation.

"It turns out someone told the Daimyo of our situation and gave him the impression his assistance was necessary. He was at the council meeting."

"Danzou…" Sakura muttered darkly. "That scheming bastard."

"That's my guess as well," Kakashi said. "Apparently he stood up at the meeting and criticized Tsunade's methods, and all but imposed himself as her replacement. In the absence of official leadership, the Daimyo retains the right to make executive decisions for Konoha. He was persuaded to name Danzou interim Hokage."

"So what do we do?" Naruto wanted to know.

"For now, nothing. As I said before, Danzou will look for any excuse to lock you up. You're the biggest threat to his plans right now."

"Kakashi is right," said Sai. The seal prevented him from saying more, but he had managed to reveal a lot with only three words. One, that Danzou _did_ want Naruto out of the picture. Two, that Sai was still in contact with him if he knew such a thing. And three, the fact that he'd told them proved he was indeed on their side.

Kakashi cast Sai a long, discerning look. "On a different matter," he said finally, "Naruto. Yamato wanted to try and do something about your seal. You should go see him." Naruto nodded, then slurped the last of the broth from his bowl as he got up. Kakashi looked at Sai again. "You should go with him. Make sure he doesn't get sidetracked or do anything rash."

Naruto shot him an indignant look, but Sai was more perceptive and knew what his team leader was doing. "Okay."

They left, and Kakashi sat beside Sakura where Sai had just been. She was aware that he'd shooed the other two away, and waited for him to speak.

"Sakura, you need to go back," he said quietly.

"What?"

"I said you need to return to your mission."

"I heard you," she said shortly. "But I can't leave right now. Tsunade-sama's still in a coma, there are still patients in the medical tents, and now with this political crisis…."

"That's precisely why you have to go back," he countered pointedly. "Danzou being made Hokage, and this new situation with Sasuke…your mission is more critical than ever. And you have to leave _now_, before things get more organized and he learns you've been mysteriously gone all this time on a mission that doesn't exist. I know you know this."

Sakura sighed heavily. "I do. It's just…."

"It's hard to leave with things the way they are. I understand. But if Tsunade were awake, what do you think she would tell you?"

"…To get Itachi ready as soon as possible and find Sasuke before Root does." She rested her chin on her knees and sighed. Though she knew what she needed to do, it was hard to make the decision. "I want to at least stay for the funeral services," she finally said, staring at some soft clouds on the horizon and thinking about the people who had been lost.

Kakashi just nodded in understanding, and they sat quietly by the river for a while.

* * *

"Two days later the memorial was held…and afterward I left. The five Kages are holding a summit at the Raikage's behest and Naruto took off with Kakashi and Sai to try and meet with him beforehand, to talk him out of demanding Sasuke's death…but I honestly don't think he'll get anywhere. Nobody but us cares about Sasuke's extenuating circumstances, and the Raikage is mourning the loss of his brother. Meanwhile, Danzou has Root agents everywhere, gathering information for him. I had to sneak out of Konoha in the middle of the night like a fugitive. I rushed to get here; I've barely slept. I was afraid I'd be followed," Sakura concluded wearily.

Itachi was silent as he processed it all; there was no response appropriate for the gravity of the situation. He was stunned by everything she'd told him, and somewhere deep inside where he kept such things under tight control, an intense, burning anger threatened to break free. He wanted Madara's blood. He wanted Danzou's blood. He wanted to end Akatsuki once and for all with his own two hands.

After a considerable effort to calm his volatile thoughts, he finally, quietly spoke. "We should leave right away. I am ready."

Sakura shook her head. "No. Even if you are, we can't do anything until my teammates return to Konoha. Kakashi said he'd send Pakkun to me with news. Until then I guess we have to wait."

She was hoarse from talking so long, and she'd cried again at a few points. Now her head ached fiercely and all she wanted to do was fall onto the bed and let sleep take her. But she was too agitated to rest. She tugged her fingers through her hair and stood.

"I'm hungry," she stated flatly. "Are you hungry? I'll make something." Itachi just looked at her. She turned away and went to the kitchen, began hastily and carelessly searching through the cabinets. "Okay. I'll make tea then. Where the hell is the tea? Did you use it all—?"

Itachi was suddenly behind her, holding her shoulders. He was warm and strong against her back, his calm, powerful presence soothing her frayed nerves. But she didn't want to be soothed, and shifted under his touch. "I just need to _do_ something," she said shakily. "I can't stop thinking about everything that happened, what's happening now, what's going to happen in the future…."

"Sakura," he murmured softly at her temple. He didn't need to say more; his tone was enough. She trembled with the effort of controlling her emotions, and with a slight pressure on her shoulders he attempted to turn her around. She offered no further resistance, and with a choked sob she whirled and practically threw herself against him.

He wasn't expecting her to kiss him. Not a regular kiss, either – a passionate, desperate kiss that bruised their lips, the vigor of her assault forcing him to readjust his balance. Itachi did reciprocate, but had a hard time keeping up with her and found her frantic behavior more disturbing than stimulating.

He finally managed to recover himself and held her by the arms. "Sakura—"

She pressed forward again, cutting him off with another kiss. He used his greater height to his advantage this time, drawing upward, forcing her back far enough to meet her gaze. Her eyes were bright with tears and clouded by grief. "Sakura, stop," he insisted gently.

She shook her head and linked her arms further around his neck. "No," she murmured, closing the space between them once more and pressing soft, amorous kisses to his neck and jaw line. "I don't want to stop…I just want to forget everything for a while."

Her actions were more purposeful and seductive than before. He could smell her skin and hair, feel her lithe curves under his hands and the softness of her breasts pressed against his chest—he was being affected despite himself. She rose on tiptoe and flicked her tongue into his ear, then pulled the lobe gently with her teeth, and for a brief moment his mind went completely blank.

"Itachi…make me forget."

Her meaning registered almost immediately, but by the time he recovered from his surprise enough to formulate a response she was already pushing him toward the bed, her hands moving under the hem of his shirt. His legs bumped the edge of the mattress, and he let her push him down. She crawled onto his lap and straddled him. He was torn between arousal at her bold seduction, and concern at the abruptness of her behavior.

"No, Sakura," he said, trying to hold her off without forcing her away. "You don't really want this."

"Yes I do." She drew back and held his gaze intently, searchingly. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth a moment, then murmured, "I want to be with you."

She couldn't possibly understand how devastatingly effective that look was. This girl possessed a form of persuasion that he wasn't trained or prepared to fight against. Her beauty, her charm, her guilelessness and complete, unfaltering trust in him…he didn't _want_ to resist her.

But she wasn't herself right now, and he couldn't let her do something she would regret later. No matter how tempting, no matter how she pleaded or insisted, he would not take advantage of her vulnerability. Itachi shook his head and trailed the backs of his fingers along her moistened cheek, gently wiped her tears away with his thumb. "Not this way."

At first Sakura looked affronted, but then her lip trembled, she drew in a long, shaky breath, and fresh tears began to stream down her face. She leaned into him, buried her face between his neck and shoulder, and he brought his arms around her. She was completely silent and still; only the tension in her small frame betrayed her anguish. When she relaxed a while later and her tears finally stopped, he carefully shifted her onto the bed. She crawled forward and listlessly kicked her boots off, climbed beneath the blankets, then pulled gently but insistently on his arm for him to join her. He didn't resist, and she curled into him the moment he lay down beside her.

Itachi offered no words of comfort, no false promises that everything was going to be alright. The future was uncertain, and more tragedy could lie ahead, but she was strong enough to face it honestly. It was what he admired most about her.

Though looking at her now, part of him wished he could make those promises. Sakura was fiery and brave and incredibly powerful, and at the same time, she was sweet and compassionate and cared so deeply for the people close to her. She was a highly respected kunoichi. Someday she would be legendary. But tonight, she was just a weary and devastated young woman who needed someone to care about her.

And he did care for her, Itachi realized. If what he felt was purely hormonal, he wouldn't have stopped her desperate attempts to escape into passion. He hadn't thought he would ever be capable of caring for anyone in that way, but he had been learning many unexpected things about himself recently.

For more than a decade, he had hidden nearly everything about himself. He suppressed his grief over the loss of his family, the loss of his brother's love and respect, the loss of his home. He had spent most of his life pretending to be different things to different people. He pretended to be the son his father wanted. The heir his clan expected. The perfect shinobi his village needed. He played the villain for Sasuke and the disciple for Madara.

As Sakura had ironically told him, no one was a better liar, a better pretender than he was. His performances were flawless. No one ever knew what lay beneath, and he had intended to take his secrets to the grave. Now, to the rest of the world, he was a ghost. He had nothing left to lose, nothing to hide, no reason to pretend.

He didn't want to pretend with her.

Itachi shifted and brought her closer to him, closed his eyes and slowly pressed his lips to her brow; a simple gesture representing an enormous decision.

Sakura seemed to understand a little, and a tired, sweet smile curled her lips. A few moments later she was asleep.

Though Itachi wasn't tired, he stayed with her, until the night wore on and the rhythm of her breathing and the whispering fire lulled him to sleep as well.

* * *

Next Chapter: _The Surrender_


	11. The Surrender

**Vespertine**

Chapter Eleven: The Surrender

* * *

_See who I am_

_Break through the surface_

_Reach for my hand_

* * *

Sakura slept through most of the next day, waking late in the afternoon to the rumble of distant thunder. She lay on her back, idly listening; the intermittent pattering of the first drops of rain on the tiled roof, the fire crackling and hissing softly. These sounds had become so familiar that she wondered how she would ever get used to their absence when she left this place. It was otherwise silent, and after a moment's concentration she faintly sensed Itachi's chakra outside nearby. He'd probably been training all day while she slept.

The memory of the previous night came back to her then, and she pulled the covers over her head with an embarrassed groan. She couldn't believe she'd thrown herself at him like that! Her mind had been so tangled and overwhelmed by everything that had happened recently that rationality had abandoned her and she'd acted without thinking. While in Konoha she'd remained strong, putting responsibility before emotion. There hadn't been time to absorb it all. But one concerned look from Itachi and the dam had broken, though she hadn't expected things to turn in _that_ direction, and he clearly hadn't, either.

Of course he turned her down. She had been an awkward, fumbling mess. It was hardly sexy. What did she know about that kind of thing anyway? And Itachi had been so understanding about it, so…exactly what she really needed. She hoped he wouldn't judge her for her moment of weakness.

Another faraway rumble echoed through the stillness. The country certainly earned its name, though she would have thought the air would be too cold for it now. Lowering the covers and looking out the window, she saw that most of the snow had melted overnight. What a weird climate.

Oversleeping always left her feeling even more drained than before, but emotionally she felt stronger, more focused, determined to move forward. That determination helped to pull her out of bed, and absently rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she plodded into the washroom to clean up.

A long, relaxing shower and Naruto's well-worn navy hoodie helped lift her spirits further, and after dressing she curled back up in bed with a book and a steaming cup of tea. But try as she might, she couldn't take in more than a few paragraphs of each page. The rain was picking up and it was getting dark, meaning Itachi would be back anytime, and she was preoccupied with determining what to say to him, with figuring out how they would work around the knowledge of what could have happened last night. What _she_ had tried to initiate.

The perfect explanation was still eluding her when she heard the door handle turn. Inwardly cursing his silent footsteps, panicked embarrassment ruling her judgment, Sakura dropped beneath the covers and pretended to be asleep.

Itachi entered, dripping rainwater from the ends of his hair. His gaze fell on Sakura almost immediately, noting her perfect stillness, her deep, even breathing. The half empty teacup. He smirked; she probably could have fooled almost anyone but him. He went to her side, gently brushed a strand of hair from her brow. "How are you feeling?" he asked her quietly.

Jade eyes opened, her cheeks pinking as she looked up. "Better," she mumbled, and slowly sat up. Perhaps it was the uncertain tension between them, or maybe the particular exchange of words, but she felt like they'd been in this exact moment before, only their roles were reversed. She was now the one recovering from a trying ordeal, and he was the one concerned for her well-being. Her eyes traveled over everything but him, then locked on the window as a flash in the darkening sky preceded another rolling boom. "Have you ever heard of a thunderstorm in midwinter?" she asked, with a little wisp of reflexive laughter.

It was easy to see that Sakura felt awkward around him, though whether it was from embarrassment or anger, Itachi wasn't sure. Likely the former; if she was angry for any reason she wouldn't restrain it behind nervous pretense as she was doing now. "It's because of this country's abundance of lakes and hot springs," he explained, equally nonchalant. "The warm air rises and mixes with the cold coming down from the mountains. In this part of the world it's even been known to snow and thunder simultaneously."

Sakura looked back to him, surprised and amused. "That's weird…though it would be cool to watch. Have you ever seen it?"

He wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but he wasn't about to demand an explanation from her. Though it annoyed him for reasons he didn't care to identify, he continued to play along. "Once."

Sakura nodded and, having run out of small talk, fell quiet. Silence stretched between them for long moments, until she worked up the courage to address the source of tension.

"Um…I'm sorry," she murmured. Having to say it aloud doubled her discomfort, and she fidgeted with a frayed spot on the edge of the quilt. "Last night…" she clarified, as if there were any doubt about what she could mean. "I don't know what I was thinking. I've never…" She forced herself to meet his eyes. "I hope you don't think I'm—"

"I think you were very understandably upset," he interjected quietly. It bothered him that she would even vaguely think less of herself, or worry that he would.

Sakura searched his face and a small, reassured smile curled her lips. "Thanks," she said softly. "For being so…nice."

Itachi just stared at her. It was quite probable that he'd never been called '_nice'_ in his entire life, and certainly not in over a decade. When he thought of 'nice' people he imagined kind, smiling faces and generous deeds. He was nothing like that. He had only acted with honor, done what he felt was right. At a loss for an appropriate response, he gave a barely perceptible nod and headed to the washroom.

When he'd gone, Sakura smiled to herself. She had a feeling she'd flustered him a little, and she couldn't help but find it adorable when he was caught off-guard. Mostly though, she felt relieved; he wasn't put off about the night before, and he didn't judge her. Things could go back to normal between them.

The storm picked up and she continued to watch it from the window, though it was nearly too dark to see by now.

After a few minutes her empty stomach demanded attention, and she went to the kitchen. Itachi must have already eaten, for there was a pot of lukewarm soup on the stove. A stew of leftovers: sausage, vegetables, rice, a few other things she couldn't identify, but she had faith in Itachi's cooking skills even if he had only thrown together whatever was left of their food supply. She clicked on the burner and reminded herself to go into town tomorrow, or the day after at latest.

Sakura ate while absently listening to the muted rush of the running shower, and wondered how she had managed to sleep the entire day away. She might have suspected Itachi of knocking her out with his Sharingan if not for the hazy, half-formed memory of him holding her close as she drifted away. Sakura smiled warmly, and then laughed quietly to herself. Months ago she never would have thought it possible to have warm and fuzzy thoughts about Uchiha Itachi.

When finished, she rinsed her bowl then rebuilt the fire, and was straightening the bed when Itachi came out of the washroom. She glanced his way, intending to tell him something which completely escaped her mind the moment she laid eyes on him. Once again, he'd emerged wearing only dark pants and a towel draped around his shoulders to catch the water from his hair.

_Of course_, she realized. Of course he would be fit again. He'd undoubtedly been training all day, every day since she left three weeks ago. She'd been such a wreck last night that she hadn't even registered the changes, for all that she'd been molded to him in her clumsy attempt at seduction. He'd even lifted her from his lap effortlessly, and she hadn't noticed. After weeks of physical rehabilitation he was strong and robust, his aura filled with renewed vitality. The lithely muscled build of an elite shinobi had mostly returned—his shoulders, arms, and chest tight and defined. He was still naturally lean though, and without the use of a belt his waistband rode low, exposing his lower abdomen and hipbones. Sakura had to make a conscious effort to keep her mouth closed.

Itachi stared right back, though her eyes were far south of his. There was a subtle challenge in his gaze as he watched her watch him, and a different kind of tension filled the space between them. Unwilling to look at him anymore lest she continue ogling and embarrass herself, Sakura blinked hard and began zealously fluffing the pillows.

Clearing her throat softly, she said, "I'd like to do a checkup and make sure everything's still okay…you know, since I was gone for so long."

Itachi nodded, dropped his dirty clothes and towel in the basket in the corner, and then sat on the newly made bed and tied his long, damp hair back. Sakura slowly lowered herself next to him, unable to keep from watching his shoulders and biceps flex with his movements. She needed to get a grip, but he certainly wasn't helping.

"You should, uh…maybe put a shirt on," she muttered, eyes dropping to her lap.

Itachi stilled, vaguely bemused. "Why?"

"It's…distracting," she admitted reluctantly.

A comprehending smirk tugged at one corner of his mouth. "Strange," he remarked smoothly, "considering you've already seen me naked."

Sakura couldn't believe he'd actually brought that up and was _teasing_ her with it. "That doesn't count!" she huffed.

"Doesn't it?"

He was messing with her now. "No, because at the time I didn't think of you like—" She cut off before she said something embarrassing.

Itachi closed in on her, bracing one hand beside her thigh. He raised a dark eyebrow. "Like…?"

Sakura had intended a clever retort, but his nearness rapidly dissolved her ability to think properly. She could smell his clean skin, still slightly damp from the shower, could feel his breath on her face and the warmth of his body. She tilted her head slightly, aligning her mouth with his. "Like this," she breathed, and closed the distance.

The slow, easy kiss sparked an unexpected wildfire between them. The hand not bracing his weight grasped the back of her head, his fingers twining tightly in her hair as he deepened the kiss. Before she knew it Sakura was on her back, pinned beneath his larger form. His heat and solidity felt welcoming, not intimidating; she felt the restrained power in him, the tension of his muscles as he held most of his weight from her. He definitely hadn't been this strong before she left. His mouth teased overher throat, though the high collar of her sweatshirt prevented him from going far. Her hands roamed his bare, smooth back, and when he nibbled a spot just beneath her ear that she'd had _no_ idea was so sensitive, she gasped and dug her short nails into his shoulder blades. His reaction was instinctive; with a muted sound he pushed his body against hers, nudging her thighs apart with his as he settled more fully over her. The extremely intimate contact that resulted made her pulse quicken with nervous excitement.

The events of the night before _had_ changed something. A door had been opened that wouldn't close again. The concept had almost become a reality; the conclusion was inevitable. Something larger than either of them was driving them to it. The only questions were when, how, who would make the first move? Sakura had felt confident and safe in the theory that it would be her, but Itachi had surprised her just now, whether he'd intended to or not. It was overwhelming and a little scary, being the object of such strong desire. Though a very insistent part of her didn't want to, this time it was she who stopped him.

"See what I mean about distracting me?" she sighed teasingly, and very subtly applied pressure to his shoulders. Itachi looked up; there was a heat in his dark eyes that made her want to give up and sink back into pleasure, but there was also amusement there, and it gave her the will to continue her playful escape. "I'm supposed to be examining you. You could be dying right this minute and we wouldn't know."

"I think I would know," he returned wryly, but backed away to allow her to sit up. He got up and fetched a mesh undershirt from the dresser and pulled it on, then returned to the bed.

Sakura felt hot and flushed inside and out, but suspected that removing any articles of clothing would only provoke the very urges she was trying to suppress. Indeed, she was glad Itachi had taken her advice and covered up more. She wound her hair in a knot on top of her head and situated herself at an angle to him.

Curious as she was about his medical progress, he was still distracting. It was unprofessional of her to be so easily sidetracked, especially by something as superficial as a beautiful man…but their situation had left the professional realm a long time ago. She took a long, calming breath, a habit she'd unconsciously picked up from Itachi, and began to collect herself. Looking deliberately away from the contours of his chest, away from the smooth pale lines of his sculpted features and his long, dark lashes cast downward as he sat calm and waiting, she focused on his upper arm, nearest to her.

Slowly, she reached out and traced her fingertip over the swirl of the long-faded tattoo that marked him as a member of the elite black ops. She needed something to focus her mind away from the carnal if she was going to put her hands on him and do her job properly. There were things about the accounts he'd given her weeks ago that had never fully satisfied her, and since she was feeling so relaxed and comfortable, and sensed that he was as well, she quietly dared to ask; "What happened that night, Itachi?"

There was a long moment of tense silence. Finally, in a low, wary voice he replied, "I already told you."

"You told me the facts," she argued gently. "I want to hear it from your point of view."

"Why does that matter?"

"It _does_ matter. What happened to _you_ matters, as much as any of it. I want to understand."

"There's nothing to understand," he said tightly. "You know what happened, Sakura. I assassinated my entire clan, young and old. I tortured Sasuke to keep him from following me, and then I fled Konoha."

Sakura flinched slightly at his savage words. He was trying to deter her with the brutal facts on the surface of the issue. She knew she was asking a lot of him, and was prepared for his reticence, but the harsh defensiveness was unexpected. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay. I completely understand. But don't sit there and pretend to be so callous about it," she said reproachfully. A muscle in his jaw tightened, and he looked away. "When we talked about it before you wanted me see your point of view, to understand your reasons for why you felt it had to be done. I was too shocked to listen then, but now I want to know."

Silence fell as she studied his profile, but he did nothing to discourage her further. In fact, he seemed to be waiting, so after a moment she cautiously continued, finding a specific place from which to guide the conversation rather than expect him to just start talking.

"Before, you said you agreed to do it because 'the alternative was unacceptable.' What did you mean by that?"

"…I meant that if I hadn't been the one to do it, then the entire clan would truly have been eliminated, including Sasuke," he answered slowly, still unsure if he wanted to be talking about this.

"And yourself," Sakura amended softly. With a trace of frustrated sadness, she added almost inaudibly, "You never consider yourself." Of course he didn't reply to that, and after a moment she went on. "I've read your file. It's oddly thin for someone so highly revered, meaning most of it is so classified Konoha won't even admit to it. Which must mean most of your missions were horrible and very hard on you."

Itachi was silent. He didn't know if he could tell her the things he'd never told anyone, things that had kept him from sleeping at night for weeks and months at a time. He trusted her, but knew that once told she would never be able to forget, nor would he be able to forget that she knew. She would be haunted by the knowledge of what he was capable of, just as he was haunted by the memories of his deeds.

What eventually decided him was the promise he'd made to himself last night. With her, at least, he would try to be an honest man. Very quietly, and with some difficulty, he finally spoke.

"I was six years old the first time I killed a man."

Sakura stared mutely, too appalled to even form a response. It wasn't the kind of thing one _ever_ expects to hear come out of someone's mouth. Itachi continued without looking at her.

"Konoha was a very different place back then. It was the middle of the Third Ninja War, and we were losing. With so many dying every day, there weren't enough shinobi left to fight. Waiting for children to grow up and gain experience through petty assignments was not an option. Occasionally those with exceptional talent would be taken right out of the Academy, graduated early and sent into battle. And I was the best. I could succeed where others would fail, and Konoha wanted to make use of that as soon as possible."

Once again his statement, which for most would have been said with pride, sounded like a curse. After talking for only a minute, Sakura already wanted him to stop. One wouldn't think it could get much worse than child assassins, but she knew that it would. To truly understand him and how he had come to be the person he was, she needed to know, and so she remained silent. She had asked for this.

Itachi faltered a moment, hindered by the surfacing of memories he'd always kept suppressed in the darkest corners of his mind. "I saw things…_did_ things that no child should ever have to experience. Those early years were filled with battles and blood and corpses. Everyone around me was dying; enemies, comrades, civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time. By the time the war ended I had seen more violence and death than you will probably ever see in your lifetime. I didn't want to join ANBU and be part of more violence, but it suited the ambitions of my clan, and I had been raised to put duty to the clan before all else. It hadn't yet occurred to me to question that.

"When my father brought me into the clan council's plans for revolution, I knew if they succeeded there would be more violence and death, and Konoha would be destroyed from the inside. Another war would begin, so soon after the last one ended, and innocent people who had nothing to do with it would find battles taking place in the streets outside their homes. You've seen what that's like."

Sakura nodded sadly. She could still hear the panicked screams and feel the quaking heat of explosions, still see the helpless villagers bleeding and dying around her in the chaotic lobby of an unprepared hospital. She took a slow, deep breath and quietly replied, "I understand, as much as someone who's never been faced with such a difficult decision can. Of course you had to do something to prevent it. You couldn't have known and done nothing." What she didn't say was that she still didn't understand how he could deny his sense of self so thoroughly as to carry out the order with his own hands, how he could separate his sense of duty so completely from his personal feelings. Her emotionally driven nature would probably never be able to grasp that part.

"It wasn't as simple as that," Itachi countered. "There were other factors and events leading to it that I didn't tell you about." He sighed quietly. "It wasn't a decision I felt had to be made, Sakura. It wasn't _my_ decision at all. I was very much against it. They were traitors, but hadn't I betrayed them as well? I knew they had to be stopped, but I didn't believe they deserved to die. There were people in the clan who didn't agree with or even know about the intended coup. But it didn't matter how I felt about it. I was a soldier. Merely a tool. A pawn.

"It was Danzou's idea to eradicate the threat entirely. He believed that if only the conspirators were punished, those who were left would take up their place. The Sandaime opposed him, and they argued over it for weeks. It wasn't until the incident with Shisui that a decision was made."

"Shisui...there was only a passing mention of that in your file."

"It was contained internally by the clan. They were required to report it to the Hokage, but they insisted the investigation be left to the Military Police."

"And the investigation never concluded," Sakura murmured. "Who was Shisui?"

"My cousin. The pride and joy of the Uchiha, more so than I was. Shisui was outgoing and popular, and I was…not. He was also cruel and ambitious, which were not considered negative traits among my clan. We were constantly compared to each other, and that made us rivals…but he was also the closest I had to a friend.

"In those last few weeks he had acted strangely toward me, and I later learned it was because the council had ordered him to watch me; they were suspicious because I had become distant, and no longer reported information on Konoha to them. I didn't know this at the time, and I was unprepared for what happened."

He paused, leaving Sakura in suspense as his expression darkened. "Shisui and I trained often together," he finally continued, speaking slowly as the incident replayed itself in his mind. "One evening we were sparring by the Nagano River, when he began putting lethal intent behind his moves. I demanded to know what he was doing, and he confronted me then, said he knew I was a double agent, that I had betrayed the Uchiha. I had no idea how he found out, but I knew I couldn't let him expose me. However, he had no intention of running, or even of capturing me. He wanted to kill me so that he could take my place; as clan heir, as the spearpoint in the rebellion, as the one to assassinate the Hokage. He said I was only heir by an accident of birth, that it should have been him.

"Shisui was a match for me, and it was probably the only time I've ever truly had to fight for my life. It was brutal, and I nearly lost. Somehow we fell into the river, and it was only because he was a poor swimmer that I was able to defeat him. Afterward, as I sat on the bank in shock of what had happened, my eyes began to bleed. I could feel the shift in my vision, and I knew what was happening."

"The Mangekyo," Sakura half whispered.

Itachi nodded, but it was another moment before he went on. "I left him in the water, where it would look like he drowned. No one had seen us by the river, and I knew he hadn't told anyone we were meeting because he'd planned to kill me. I went to the Hokage and explained what happened. He had a medic secretly heal my wounds, and said he would provide an alibi if I needed one. It didn't feel right to cover up what happened, but there was no other option that wouldn't ruin everything.

"The next day I was confronted by the Military Police. They had found Shisui's body…along with a suicide note that neither of us had written. Shisui wasn't the suicidal type and everyone knew it, and what would have been seen as an accident now looked like murder. That was when I realized that someone had _told_ Shisui about me, and that person had also forged the note and somehow implicated me as a suspect. We had both been played."

"Do you know who did it?" Sakura asked.

"When I told the Hokage what happened with the police, Danzou was there and argued for immediate action against the Uchiha, saying it was no longer safe to wait. I began to suspect him then, but I had no proof. Though in retrospect, it could just as likely have been Madara. They both had motive for escalating the situation.

"But I'm getting ahead of myself. When they came to me with that note and I realized how much of a pawn I really was, I lost my temper." His expression darkened further, nearly a scowl. "In that moment I hated them and their ideals, and told them so. I didn't care. They attacked me, and I nearly killed them then and there. I wanted to tell them that their foolish ambitions had doomed them, that I had betrayed them and they were all going to die. But Sasuke was there, watching me like I was a stranger. He called out to me with fear in his voice, and that was when I remembered myself. I begged forgiveness from my father and uncles, though it sickened me to do it."

"They didn't arrest you?"

"They had no proof," he said. "They wanted me to know I was a suspect, but they wouldn't take action against the clan leader's son unless they had irrefutable evidence. I'm sure my reaction condemned me in their eyes, but it wouldn't matter. That night I was summoned by the Hokage and given the order to eliminate the threat to Konoha. I had expected it by that point, but I thought it would only be the guilty who were condemned...I never thought it would be the entire clan. The Sandaime seemed like a very different person to me then, cold and ruthless. I wasn't allowed to argue. I had gotten myself involved, and it was too late to back out."

His next words were quiet and weary, almost pained, his dark eyes fixed unseeing on the fire. "If I hadn't been trained and raised to be so unfailingly loyal and obedient, I might have taken Sasuke and run. I could have left the assassination for someone else and spared our lives in more ways than one. But it didn't occur to me as I was then; it seemed cowardly and dishonorable. In the end I did my duty as I had always done."

"It's the most screwed up thing I've ever heard," Sakura declared bluntly, and then sighed. "It's hard to believe Konoha was ever like that, but it's good that it seems unfamiliar now because it means things have changed for the better. Though, there is still a lot that needs work…. I guess the first thing to do is put that snake Danzou back under a rock where he belongs." She watched him a moment, then realized she had mostly been talking to herself because Itachi seemed to be lost in his thoughts and memories and was oblivious to her scrutiny.

After a minute she decided that while he was being so candid, there was something else she wanted to know, something that had bothered her for some time.

"When I read your file, there was one thing about the account of that night that didn't make sense to me." Itachi finally looked at her then, and she held his gaze intently. "Roughly a third of the Uchiha were jounin and part of the Konoha Military Police, every one of them possessing the Sharingan. The Mangekyo is vastly superior, but I know it takes time to master and you'd only had it a few days. Even _now_, you wouldn't be able to fight dozens of jounin while simultaneously preventing even one person from escaping past the compound walls. It's strategically impossible. So the only conclusion I can come to…is that you didn't do it alone. You had help, didn't you?"

Itachi regarded her silently, once again impressed by her sharp intellect. "Yes," he finally said. "It was Madara."

Sakura had suspected as much. Who else could it have been?

"I had no plan," he admitted. "I didn't know how I could succeed, or if I could even bring myself to do it. I was…afraid. Then the day before it was to happen Madara came to me. He explained that he'd been watching Konoha, specifically the Uchiha clan, for many years. He said that I needed help, and offered his skills. Of course I knew who he was, though like everyone else I believed him long dead. I didn't trust him, but I accepted because he was right; I couldn't do it alone."

Itachi went quiet again. Sakura watched him silently, patient and understanding, until he was able to continue.

"That night…I asked Madara to cast a genjutsu over the compound that put nearly everyone to sleep. Only the strongest were resistant—the ones most capable of defending themselves. He laughed and called me a coward…I suppose in a way he was right. At the time, it was my way of being merciful." He faltered again, unable to speak of the details. His subconscious mind was so eager to shove those thoughts and memories back into their dark corners that he couldn't even recall it entirely. He was only able to offer a summary. "In the end, Madara did most of it. I hesitated too much, and he was fast and ruthless. Gleeful, even. He revealed himself as the monster he is, but I felt no different from him that night.

"My parents were the last," he said, voice carefully measured. "I had come that far already, and I needed the insanity of the situation for that final strike. But…I didn't hesitate with my father. I hated him intensely; for causing it all, for forcing me into that situation. The last word he spoke was 'traitor.'"

He closed his eyes. "It was only moments after that Sasuke came in," he continued mutedly. "He wasn't supposed to come home early. That was the one thing I _had_ planned. I heard him outside and knew he'd already seen so much that he was never meant to see. I told him not to enter, but he didn't listen. I wasn't prepared to handle that moment, to see the horrified and confused look in his eyes. He ran from me, toward the far end of the compound where Madara was. I knew Madara would kill him without hesitation. I chased after him, and not knowing what else to do, I used the Mangekyo on him. I planted an altered memory of that night in his mind, one in which I tried to kill him, in which I was the only evil. I thought he would be rendered unconscious, but I wasn't proficient with the Mangekyo yet and he recovered enough to chase me through the compound. When I turned to see him one last time, his eyes were red with hatred. Shock had activated his Sharingan, but it was too much for him and he lost consciousness a moment later. That was the last I saw of him for many years.

"I fled after that. I ran and ran until I couldn't run anymore and when I finally stopped, I had…somewhat of a breakdown," he admitted with difficulty. "Madara came upon me in that state and offered me a place in Akatsuki. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to die. But I knew if I died there would be no one to protect Sasuke. No one to keep tabs on Madara and his schemes. I accepted on the terms that he would do nothing further against Konoha. The next night I returned to the village in secret and begged the Hokage to let Sasuke live. I promised to provide information on Akatsuki. Then I left and began my life as a missing-nin."

The way he described it, as if it was burned into his mind's eye forever...Sakura could almost picture herself there. It was all so tragic, she didn't know what to say. He wasn't at fault for what happened, nor was he blameless. All she knew was that, like Sasuke, he suffered endlessly for it, and it pained her because she cared so much for him. She reached for his hand. His fingers remained lax under hers and his expression confused her; he seemed troubled, bewildered, even a little lost. She became worried when he didn't respond to her light squeeze of his hand. "Itachi…?"

Itachi blinked at the soft sound of her voice, and shook his head faintly. "I've never been this open with anyone before…about anything," he murmured. He was surprised at himself, and at how _relieving_ it felt to share his burdens with another soul. Once he'd begun he just couldn't seem to stop. Now she knew everything…and strangely, he didn't regret telling her.

Sakura smiled tremulously and laid her head on his shoulder. "Thank you for trusting me," she whispered. She threaded her fingers through his, and this time he returned the gesture.

For a long while they didn't move or speak, until Itachi was taken aback by a quiet sniffle from Sakura. When he looked down and saw that her eyes were red and wet, he shifted and held her chin in his free hand, gently forcing her to meet his gaze. "Don't cry for me," he said, catching the moisture below her eye with his thumb.

Sakura straightened abruptly, frowning._ "Someone_ should!" she cried. "_You_ can't, and Sasuke can't, and the dead can't. So I will. Someone _should_ rage and scream and cry about it because it's so unbelievably _wrong_!"

Itachi just stared at her, stunned. After everything she knew, everything he'd just told her, how could she still look at him with such tenderness in her eyes? How could someone like her truly exist, and what cosmic fluke had brought her into his dark life and made her care for him? He tried to think of something to say, but it wouldn't come, and so he simply grasped her head in his hands and kissed her.

The remnants of her tears dampened his face, as if _he_ were the one crying, though she had been right in saying he couldn't. The physical reactions of pain and grief had been lost to him long ago, but the uncomfortable tightening in his chest and throat made it clear that time and suppression hadn't taken his ability to _feel_ them. Speaking of it, reliving those moments in his mind, Sakura's tears of sadness and compassion for his sake…they had dredged up what he'd long buried, exposing the raw, unhealed wounds he'd carefully kept hidden even from himself.

He broke from her lips and exhaled a slow, deliberate breath, trying to gain some control over the confusing, tormenting flood happening inside of him. He let his head drop forward, rested his forehead against her shoulder, and closed his eyes.

Sakura gently wrapped her arms around him, deeply moved by his trust in her and by what seemed like an action of acceptance and release, amazed by how he could convey so much with such a small gesture. She was sorry to have caused him pain in bringing it up, forcing him to face the demons of his past…but while the past could not be changed, bringing these feelings into the open light of the present, here, together, would cause their dark power to fade and allow him to move forward. She sat silently with him, softly smoothing her fingers through the long ends of his hair.

How long they stayed suspended in time was unclear. Itachi remained still and quiet against her, and eventually she began very slowly trailing her hands over him, fingertips brushing across his shoulders, down his arms. She eased chakra through her touch and into him, at last beginning the healing session originally planned when they sat down together.

The warm, vaguely tingly sensation under his skin finally made Itachi raise his head and he watched her actions intently, like the first time she'd touched him in that clinic, only where before he was tense and wary, his gaze hostile, now he exuded nothing but ease and pleasant familiarity, tinged with a calm weariness that had nothing to do with physical strain.

It wasn't necessary to move her hands while healing; she could access and examine every part of her patient simply by sitting still and concentrating. Itachi probably knew that as well, for she hadn't always done it this way. Her tender caresses were personal and affectionate, meant to have a soothing effect, strengthening the feeling of closeness between them.

The longer her glowing hands made contact with his skin, the more apparent it became that something was different: there was no charged, zinging sensation between her skin and his. The chakra connection that had been such a strange, often provocative issue between them for weeks was completely gone. With his return to health, his own chakra was strong and abundant, and there was no longer any trace of her energy in him aside from that which she currently applied. Their eyes met in silent acknowledgement of the fact, but neither said anything, unsure whether to be pleased or disappointed.

It didn't matter, Sakura decided. The chakra link had been a superficial anomaly that in reality meant nothing. It had never been the source of their connection, she now realized. She had never felt closer to him than in this moment.

As the examination continued another difference sharply caught her notice. Initially thinking she was mistaken or that her focused was off, she pushed her chakra outward through his cells and pathways with more caution and concentration than before. The result was the same. Brow furrowed, she checked again to be absolutely certain. Itachi had taken notice and his eyes searched her face, intently curious. At the end of the third thorough pass through his system, a triumphant, glowing smile lit her face.

"It's gone…" she declared with quiet excitement. "It's completely gone. You're healed."

For a long moment Itachi just stared, eyes widened slightly. This had been the intended outcome from the beginning, and over weeks and months of healing he had felt the changes within himself, felt his strength returning with every untainted breath, every day without the debilitating cough and searing pain. Sakura had always been confident, and he had even begun to tentatively hope, but he realized now that he had never truly believed he would be cured. Not completely and permanently, not in a way that enabled him to think of the future not as a possibility, but as an inevitable fact. 'The rest of his life' now had a completely new meaning. Very slowly, a small smile curved his lips.

Sakura had never seen him truly smile, and was delightedly amazed. It was an awkward smile, faltering and almost shy, like he'd forgotten how. The idea that he hadn't had anything to be happy about in so long saddened her, but her exhilaration over their victory dominated everything else and she sprang on him with a gleeful little laugh, linking her arms around his neck.

Strange, how altered a person's perceptions can become, how drastically opinions and feelings can change. When she'd grudgingly agreed to heal him she really hadn't cared whether it was permanent or temporary, whether he lived or died, as long as he lasted long enough to keep his word. She'd despised him and wouldn't have batted an eyelash if the Hokage ordered his execution the moment their deal was concluded. That was all before she'd come to know who he really was, before she'd seen the man behind the infamy, behind the mask. Before he'd _let_ her see. She had grown to care about him, and then her feelings had deepened even further. Now she cared about him more than she was willing to admit, even to herself. They had both come a long way since that strange, accidental encounter.

She was still grinning when she sat back, jade eyes gleaming in the low light. "We should celebrate," she declared excitedly. Jumping up, she moved to the kitchen, opened the far cupboard and hoisted herself onto the counter to reach the top shelf. Itachi watched her bemusedly as she pulled down a half empty bottle of dark amber liquid. She grabbed two small glasses before hopping down and making her way back to him with a beaming smile. "I found this when I first cleaned the place," she supplied.

It was whiskey, he saw. The cheap kind, from the nondescript label. "I don't drink," he said blandly.

"This is a special occasion," Sakura insisted as she opened the bottle. She poured a small amount into each glass and handed him one. He took it resignedly and stared at the swishing liquid, his nose twitching just slightly as the pungent, fermented aroma hit his nostrils. Sakura had smelled—and tasted—far stronger from her shishou's private stash, and she grinned amusedly as she held her glass up for a toast.

"To the future," she said warmly. Itachi lightly clinked his glass against hers, and they both drank. A bitter burn filled the back of her throat and she made a gasping face. Itachi did a good job of hiding his own grimace, but the tightening around his eyes and the slight hard press of his lips gave away his distaste, and Sakura giggled at the silliness of them both. For good measure she drained the rest, making another face. Itachi had fulfilled his obligation and clearly had no intention of touching the remaining contents of his glass.

"Come with me into town tomorrow," she said cheerfully after a moment, once the second burn had dissipated. She took his glass and set them both on the floor along with the bottle. "There isn't anything fun to do there, but the fact that you _can_ is really the point, right?"

Itachi agreed readily; after two months of confinement to this cabin and its little clearing, he was restless and eager for _any_ change, no matter how mundane.

Sakura exhaled heavily, puffing out her cheeks. The heat of the fire against her back had become uncomfortable, and the fuzzy warmth of the liquor made it worse. She finally gave in to the need to take off her sweatshirt. Underneath she wore a snug black tank top, and as her face was lost beneath the hoodie when she pulled it over her head, she missed Itachi's dark eyes focusing intently on her, roving over her exposed arms and collarbones and the beginning swell of feminine curves beneath the low-cut neckline. Her actions caused her precariously held bun to come loose and her hair spilled around her shoulders as she tossed the discarded article over the back of a chair.

A warm wave of her scent washed over him, infinitely more appealing than the harsh odor of the whiskey. A pleasant warmth spread through his limbs that was only partially related to the alcohol. He wanted to pull her to him and inhale her sweet, feminine scent, to touch the softness of her curves and replace the bitter taste in his mouth with the silky sweetness of her lips, her skin.

She looked back to him and her heart gave a little thump at the hungry expression in his dark eyes. She was drawn in, caught by the same primitive pull. It wasn't clear which of them moved first, but Itachi's hand slipped round the back of her neck with purposeful intent and Sakura let herself be drawn forward as his mouth descended on hers.

Sakura met him fervently, a tiny sound escaping her as his fingers threaded into her hair and he rose onto his knees to lean over her. The wildfire flared within them again, now fueled by raw emotions to a state of nearly uncontrolled passion. Her back arched as she moved with him, hands clenching in the material of his shirt. Their tongues met and glided together, their actions filled with a hunger and need that had, until now, always lingered just below the surface. This time it controlled them. This time something was different, and instinctively Sakura knew: they weren't going to stop. She had wanted this for some time, and welcomed it with nervous excitement.

Her intent was made clear as she began to pull his mesh shirt upward. Itachi paused only long enough to raise his arms and let her take it off, and then his mouth descended on her neck and the smooth ridge of her collarbone. His hands moved under her shirt, caressing her lower back and ribcage.

Finally allowing himself to give in to his desires overwhelmed him to the point that his head felt hazy, a little dizzy even, like he was drunk. Maybe he was—drunk on _her_. His thoughts were filled with nothing but the need to be with her, to be part of her. Somehow he had stumbled upon this unexpected happiness and he wanted to take it within himself, absorb as much as he could and store it away before it slipped from his grasp, as it was surely meant to do.

Sakura sighed and shivered beneath his touch. The sensation his hands under her shirt caused was unique; tingly and tickly and arousing all at once. Her nails grazed up his spine and she gasped as he bit down on her neck in return. He liked the pleasure-pain, she realized, and experimented further by grasping the nape of his ponytail and pulling his head up so she could kiss him again. A low rumble vibrated in his chest and he drove her backward, pressed her down into the bed. She smirked against his mouth, pleased with her findings. Itachi settled his weight, hips pressing down upon hers. She wrapped her legs around him, and the full contact elicited soft gasps from them both.

Unhurriedly, he slid the hem of her shirt upward, revealing her smooth stomach inch by inch, continuing up and up until her simple black bra was exposed. His gaze swept appreciatively over the clean lines of her undergarment; it was practical, unfrilled, but still alluring—a perfect fit to its owner. He couldn't help but wonder if the other half matched. Sakura lifted her arms as slowly as he lifted her shirt, her eyes cast to the side as it was removed.

His lips brushed a tentative but heated trail from her shoulder to her collarbone, then down the plane of her chest and between the soft rise of her breasts. His fingertips followed where his mouth had been, streaking the moisture left by his tongue over her skin. Itachi had no real idea what he was doing, he simply followed whatever urge came to him, wanting to explore and learn her. His hands memorized the slight dip just below her ribcage, the curve of her slender waist and the swell of her hips. He kissed her lips again, slipped one arm around her waist and she readily molded herself to him.

When Itachi's hands moved over her hips and edged beneath her waistband, Sakura finally began to feel self-conscious. Now that the clothes were actually coming off, would he be disappointed with what he saw? She had nothing to judge by but her own rather unforgiving opinions of herself; no man had ever seen her naked before. Not wanting him to notice her unease—shyness was unsexy—she shifted at his guidance and lifted her hips as the cloth slid over and down her legs.

Itachi couldn't help but smirk at the revelation that her panties _didn't_ match; they were purple, with a lacy edge that cut low across her hipbones. He decided the combination was more tantalizing than a perfect set. Her skin was pale and smooth, her figure lithely feminine, and he was tempted to activate his bloodline limit to study every inch of her, but other ideas presented themselves as more enticing. However, when his gaze traveled to her face he saw that her eyes were downcast, her cheeks flushed with pink, and then he noticed the slight tension in her, how her toned thighs were nearly crossed, the way her fingers fidgeted with the pillow beside her head. She looked as anxious, almost uncomfortable. The truth of the situation hit him then, and with a sharp exhale he drew back onto his knees.

Thinking she'd done something to put him off, Sakura sat up halfway with a worried frown. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head minutely, noting the way she half attempted to cover herself with one hand without realizing. "You…haven't done this before..."

Her eyes widened slightly as she wondered what gave her away. Was it that obvious? "No…" she admitted hesitantly. "So what?"

"Sakura…we can't." His voice was tightly strained, though it was impossible to tell if it was his reluctance to say the words, or the truth behind them. "You don't want to give me this."

For a moment she could only stare at him. "What?" she laughed incredulously. Insecurities fading beneath her resolve, she moved toward him until their knees touched and reached up to cup his face in her hands. "Is that all?" she demanded lightly. "Are you trying to say I deserve someone better? Because I don't want to hear it." She could see he was about to argue again, and shook her head reprovingly. "Itachi, last night…I was a wreck and my motives were all wrong, but I knew what I was doing," she assured softly. "I wanted to…. I still do. Don't you want me too?"

She had no idea how much, especially with the way she was looking at him right now. His hands had made a tousled mess of her hair, and his kisses had left her lips deep pink and slightly swollen. Her eyes glowed with desire and affection and trust. She was so beautiful and unknowingly seductive that he forgot what he was about to say. It was difficult to even think at the moment. She had been made to break him, he was sure of it now. Slowly, he reached up and twirled a lock of her hair, then let it fall and trailed his fingertips along her collarbone to the smooth dip at the base of her throat. "Yes," he rasped.

"Then shut up and kiss me again."

Itachi couldn't help the small tug at the corner of his lips, before he leaned in and did just that.

The fire rose up again, more tempered now, their actions more cautious and purposeful. Sakura ran her palms over the expanse of his lean torso, relishing the feel of firm muscle beneath smooth skin. His dark eyes smoldered, burning her with their intensity. His long, midnight hair spilled over his shoulder in sharp contrast against his paleness. He was so impossibly gorgeous. Closing the small distance between them, she pressed her lips to his neck, tasted his skin with her tongue. His hands slipped from her waist to tentatively caress her bare thighs as she moved lower, kissing his collarbone, his shoulder, his chest.

She could sense the slight awkward tension in him, mirroring her own. It somehow made him even more attractive, and it really wasn't fair that she was in her underwear, almost fully exposed, and he was still half dressed. Hesitating only a moment, she reached for the button of his pants. The mechanics from that angle proved more difficult than she anticipated; she put a little too much force into it and it flew open unexpectedly. He hissed sharply as her thumbnail scratched him just below his navel.

"Sorry," she laughed contritely. "I only know how this goes in theory."

"Likewise," he murmured.

Sakura blinked and drew back in surprise. "Wha? …you mean you're…you've never done this before either?"

He gave her an odd look. "Why are you surprised?"

"Well," she stammered, "because you're so…have you _seen_ yourself?" When she thought about it, though, she supposed it made sense. Yes, he was _very_ attractive, but he was also reticent and aloof and didn't let anyone under his guard. It had taken saving his life and months of constant proximity for him to be this comfortable with her.

"I could say the same about you," he said simply, his eyes caressing her nearly naked figure.

Sakura flushed. "Oh. Well okay then," she murmured happily, and raised her face to be kissed. Emboldened by his desire for her, she continued the removal of his pants, sliding them down over his narrow hips. He assisted her the rest of the way, until he wore only a pair of dark boxer briefs. Sakura had picked them out herself with the rest of his clothes, but had obviously never seen him in them. It had been a _very_ good choice.

She wound her arms round his neck and pressed herself against him. His hands found her waist and slowly moved around, traveling upward until his fingers hooked under the clasp of her bra. With a somewhat fumbling twist it was open, and Sakura lowered her arms to let the straps fall away. Itachi's lips brushed the sensitive skin of her throat and her head fell to the side encouragingly. He pulled back just slightly so that she was fully revealed to him. The backs of his fingers teased, feather-light against the outsides of her breasts, and a long moment of electric tension passed between them before he finally curved his hands around the soft mounds. No one had ever touched her like this before, and she hadn't known her body could be so responsive. Moving forward, trapping his hands between them, she hungrily sought his kiss.

His tongue swept against hers at the same moment his thumb brushed across the hardened peak of her nipple, and Sakura moaned into his mouth. A jolt of desire shot through him at that sound and he impatiently wrapped his arms around her and lowered her back onto the bed. This time when the silken texture of her inner thighs glided over his hips he pushed forward against her. With such flimsy barriers between them the sensation was intense, the heat and softness of her dizzyingly erotic.

Sakura's breaths quickened in anticipation and she threaded her fingers through his hair as he worked his way lower again. His lips brushed her nipple and her breath caught. The second his mouth closed over the hard peak her back arched sharply and a shaky gasp escaped her as her fingers tightened in his hair. She knew the feeling of arousal, but _this_ was on a whole new level! The hot wetness of his mouth on her was beyond amazing, the movements of his tongue sending sharp waves of pleasure straight to her lower regions where every time he moved she could feel the pressure of his erection against her, stimulating her further. He switched to her other breast, paying it equal attention. It was hard to believe he'd never done this before. Her heart was racing. Her blood was on fire, pounding through her veins in an ancient rhythm that urged her to act with more confidence than she felt. She raked her nails down his back, knowing what his reaction would be, arching wantonly when he groaned and thrust hard against her barely clothed center. His teeth scraped her nipple and she moaned at the shocking pleasure of it.

"Itachi…" she nearly whimpered, pleading with him to understand her need, knowing he shared it. Nearly all of her inexperienced nervousness was gone, dissolved in the wake of overpowering lust. All she wanted was for him to keep touching her and kissing her, to feel every contour of his body against hers, desperate to relieve the burning ache between her thighs.

Itachi raised his head and met her gaze fuzzily, as intoxicated with lust as the woman beneath him. Her luminous eyes were darkened with passion, commanding him to take the next step, and at this point he was more than eager to obey. He moved back from that entrancing heat and slid his fingers under the lacy strap of her panties, slowly worked them down until she was beautifully naked before him. He dealt with his own next, removing the last barrier between them. As he settled against her again Sakura rolled her hips slightly upward, and his eyes snapped closed. It was _vastly_ different with nothing between them. He didn't know how he was going to make it through this entire thing if he already felt this way. He didn't know how _anybody_ made it through if it felt like this.

Sakura felt much the same thing at that moment. The hot, hard pressure against her was exactly what she craved, and her body moved of its own will, arching and writhing upward. Itachi groaned softly and pressed his mouth firmly to her throat. For an agonizingly long moment nothing happened. Finally, he shifted and their bodies aligned perfectly, and then he carefully eased forward little by little until he was buried inside of her.

There was no significant pain, and she hadn't really expected any. It was rare for kunoichi to feel pain their first time; after a lifetime of strenuous activity there was nothing left to tear. What she felt instead was a mild stinging and an uncomfortable stretching sensation. It lessened after a moment as her body adjusted to the intrusion, and she was left with a strange feeling of fullness that she suspected would start to feel good once they began to move.

Other sensations overcame her as the discomfort vanished, beyond physical and almost indescribable, something very close to pure joy. They were as close as two people could possibly get, in every possible way. The power of such intimacy was so overwhelming it nearly brought tears to her eyes. She clung to him tightly, hoping he felt it too.

Itachi was frozen, the muscles of his arms and shoulders straining as he held himself perfectly still, forehead pressed to her collarbone as he fought for control of himself. He hadn't been prepared for the intense heat and tight, velvety wetness, and the flood of sensation that bombarded his body nearly swept him away. It was the most shockingly powerful thing he'd ever experienced. To be so completely connected to her, to feel her small form beneath him, all around him, trusting, wanting, welcoming…it was almost frightening in its profundity. He raised his head and kissed her, and she encouraged him to continue by lifting her thighs over his, grinding against him. It was almost too much, but slowly and shallowly, he thrust forward.

It was admittedly awkward and clumsy at first, as they couldn't seem to find an angle or rhythm that worked for both for them. Sakura thought Itachi was too slow and cautious, but she also knew that if he wasn't, this would probably be over a lot sooner than either of them wanted. She discovered an angle of her hips that made it feel incredibly good, but then he moved just slightly different and it suddenly hurt. When that happened she dug her nails a little too hard into his shoulders, breaking skin. At one point he rested his weight badly and the point of his elbow bruised the inside of her arm.

But after a while they found it—that perfect harmony of movement that changed discomfort to pleasure and frustration to ecstasy. Sakura clung to him tightly, rolled her hips upward to meet him as he began to move with more confidence and control. She discovered that she found pleasure not only in the movement inside her, but also in the feel of his weight against her, his powerful, muscular body sliding over hers, their hot, heavy breaths mingling as his parted lips hovered a fraction above her own.

Sakura hadn't realized sex would be so strenuous; they weren't even moving all that much, yet were both panting and slightly sweaty. It was surprisingly sexy, that together they created such heat and passion, and when her tongue glided over his adam's apple she didn't mind the taste of salt on his skin. Her mouth moved everywhere it could reach, kissing, tasting and teasingly nipping his neck, his shoulder, his jaw, the underside of his chin, his forearm beside her head. Itachi responded by dipping his tongue into the hollow of her throat, tracing the ridge of her collarbone with the same sensual, teasing attentions.

Eventually his fingers dug painfully into her thigh and his thrusts became faster, deeper, his rhythm breaking apart as he neared release. The primal, animalistic nature of it excited her and she felt a building pressure deep within, like a tightening coil of heat in her core. Itachi buried his face against her neck, and the muscles in his back tensed and convulsed under her hands. A moment later a broken groan escaped him and he thrust hard against her once, then again…the force of it felt so unexpectedly good that Sakura cried out sharply in surprised rapture, and on the third time she fell over the edge as well. Again it was a sensation she knew, only powerfully, infinitely amplified by sharing it with another person. Incoherent sounds of ecstasy were forced from her throat and she trembled and writhed against him until the waves of heat and pleasure slowly faded.

They remained locked together, motionless as their pounding hearts slowed and their breathing evened. Sakura lowered her shaky thighs from around his hips and lightly ran her hands down his back, turned her face into his neck. Itachi finally stirred, released his bruising grip on her hip and lifted his weight from her. When he began to slowly pull out she felt an entirely different sort of ache between her legs and knew she would be sore tomorrow. With that connection gone she also felt strangely empty, as if being joined with him was the natural state of being, and now she was missing something vital.

Itachi settled beside her, keeping one arm locked around her waist. Sakura's soft hands smoothed over his shoulders and touched his face, gently urging him to look at her. When he did her full lips curved in a soft, sweet smile, and something strange and almost frightening surged in his chest. He kissed her slowly, tenderly, more than a little overcome by the whole experience. When he pulled back she smiled again, more fully, and whether it was due to her infectious charm or his own awed happiness, he couldn't help but smile back.

Sakura had already come to adore that shy, hesitant smile, even if she'd only seen it once before. She felt giddily happy, even more so because _he_ was happy too. How could he have doubts when being together like this was so obviously what they both wanted? She pulled the blankets over them, then curled against him and pressed her face to the warm smoothness of his chest, sighing softly when his arms closed around her.

The thunderstorm had long since rolled away, but the rain still continued to beat a steady tempo on the roof above, and they listened to the soothing sound as they lay quietly together. The sluggish movements of his fingers in her hair and his slow, even breathing told her he was on the verge of sleep. She'd only woken a few hours ago, but there was no way she was getting out of the warm coziness of this bed and the comfort of his embrace, and soon enough, blissful contentment lulled her into drowsiness and she drifted away with a smile on her lips.

* * *

Next chapter: _The Wakeup Call_


	12. The Wakeup Call

**Vespertine**

Chapter Twelve: The Wakeup Call

* * *

_The subject matter here is a little too close to home_

_And now I can't take back what I gave_

* * *

Naruto snapped awake, every instinct screaming of danger. Had he heard something? Smelled something? His cramped studio apartment was dark and silent, his furniture casting long, deep shadows in the dim yellow glow of late afternoon that broke through the few missing slats on the blinds.

One of the shadows moved in a deliberate way, purposely revealing itself as a man's figure in the center of the room.

Instantly Naruto was on his feet, poised to fight. The figure wore an ANBU uniform, face concealed by a white mask. The way things had been going lately, this could only mean one thing: Root had come for him at last.

"Naruto." The voice was muffled, but surprisingly familiar. He slowly raised his hand, intentionally angled to show he wasn't reaching for the ninjato strapped to his back. Naruto tensed anyway, hooking a finger through the end of a kunai. The Root agent only pushed up his mask, revealing his face.

Naruto started. "Sai…." He didn't relax upon seeing his teammate; confusion only added to his wariness. "What are you doing? Why are you in that uniform?"

"We have to go," he said, glancing sharply toward the window. "I'm positive they followed me."

"Who? What the hell is going on?"

Sai opened his mouth to speak, an almost pained expression crossed his features, then he closed it again and shook his head. "No time," he finally managed. "We need to—"

The front door opened, the startling intrusion of daylight illuminating the silhouette of another Root agent, who in a deep, muffled voice said, "Good, you're already here." He moved into the room. "The Hokage wants it done quietly."

Naruto took a step back as the reality sunk in, and turned shocked eyes to his teammate. "That bastard sent you to _kill_ me?"

"Those are my orders," Sai confirmed plainly.

"Have a little respect for the Hokage, boy," the other agent said.

"That son of a bitch is no Hokage," Naruto growled, backing up and forming the first seal of a bunshin jutsu. "He's nothing but a treacherous, underhanded snake."

"He's more of a Hokage than _you'll_ ever be, demon fox."

"Tsunade's gonna have every one of you fuckers executed when she wakes up."

"Hn. That softhearted crone won't be a problem anymore."

Burning rage began to spread through him. "What the fuck do you mean? What have you done!"

"Enough small talk. Let's get this over with." The masked agent unsheathed his sword and began to advance. Behind him, Sai did the same.

The strike came in a blur of steel. Naruto jumped back, only to collide with the edge of his bed and momentarily lose his footing. The agent was upon him instantly, slashing downward with another lethal strike. Blood spattered hot and wet across Naruto's cheek.

It all happened in a moment, and it took a second for him to register that he was unhurt. Another moment for him to hear the shocked, gurgling sound from his attacker and see the curved point of a bloody sword protruding from his chest, straight through the heart. The sword pulled free with a sick squelch, and the faceless assassin fell to the ground with a heavy thump.

Sai's expression was impassive but firm as he flicked the crimson droplets from his blade and sheathed it, but when he looked up at Naruto his dark eyes were angry. "You actually thought I would kill you…."

Naruto blinked rapidly and got to his feet, his mind a whirlwind of confusion. "…N-no, of course I didn't believe it!" he stammered, wiping his face and stepping around the body to face his teammate. "I mean, well…Danzou has such a hold on you guys…. and you even said—"

"I said those were my orders. But I came to warn you, or did you not hear that part." His eyes narrowed incredulously. "After all we've been through…how could you think I wouldn't be on your side? We're teammates, Naruto. I thought you knew I'm your friend."

Naruto dropped his gaze, ashamed. "I do know," he mumbled. "We _are_ friends. I shouldn't have doubted you. Sorry."

Before Sai could respond a faint _pop_ sounded and a cloud of smoke appeared before them. Naruto was still jumpy and fell back, but Sai turned expectantly to the cloud, which dissipated to reveal Kakashi.

"I got your message." He'd been more than a little surprised when one of Sai's birds collided with his window, the inky streaks reforming into a word – 'Naruto.' With the current situation in Konoha, he knew to take it seriously and assume it was urgent. "What's going on?" Before anyone answered, his nose caught the scent of blood and his gaze fell to the Root agent bleeding out on the floor. "I see…." he deduced solemnly.

"Danzou ordered _Sai_ to kill me," Naruto raged. "How fucked up is that? And from what _that_ guy said, I think plans to do something to Tsunade!"

"If he hasn't already," Sai murmured.

"Do you know anything?" Kakashi asked him sharply.

"Not beyond what I was ordered."

"And if you did, you couldn't tell anyway."

"Right. I think I'm no longer trusted. That's why…." He broke off, wincing as his throat constricted.

"Why you were ordered to kill Naruto. As a test," Kakashi finished for him. "And why you were followed."

"He's gone too far this time," Naruto bristled. "I'm gonna kill him."

"Naruto, don't be reckless. Think," Kakashi warned, keeping a restraining grip on his shoulder. "You'll never get to him without going through all of Root first."

Scuffling and thumping sounds sounded on the side of the building and the roof above.

"Point proven," the Copy Ninja muttered dryly, as a full squad of Root agents came through the door.

Fighting was difficult in the small space, but three against eight wasn't bad odds for Team Kakashi. The odds improved when the wooden floor warped and rose up and Yamato stood with them. Root had expected Naruto to be alone, not to have two jounin elites and one of their own agents fighting with him. They were unprepared and outmatched, and it was over in less than a minute.

"I thought you guys might be in trouble," Yamato said, quickly stabbing the last attacker with a wooden spike.

"Yamato-taichou," Naruto exclaimed. "What are you doing here? I mean, how did you—"

"I'll explain later. More Root are on the way. We need to get out, now."

"My thoughts exactly," said Kakashi. He reached into his vest pocket to withdraw a scroll, then kneeled down and spread the unsealed jutsu on a clear space on the body-strewn floor. "Not exactly what it was meant for, but this does qualify as an emergency. We don't have much choice at the moment."

More sounds of approaching assassins were heard outside; at least twice as many as before.

"Everyone grab on to me." They each put a hand on his shoulders. He made the seals, and just as two more squads of Root agents burst through the door, Team Kakashi vanished in a curl of white smoke.

* * *

On the first day in months that the sun broke through the rain-heavy clouds, Sakura found herself engaged in the hardest sparring match of her life.

In a momentary reprieve, she jumped from the tree she'd landed on to the forest floor and felt with her senses for any sign of her opponent. Though the day was clear the winter air was crisp, and her exerted breaths puffed faintly before her face.

They were training in the woods because Itachi believed squaring off face to face never taught anyone anything. To fight when you weren't prepared, when the setting wasn't ideal, was the best way to improve, he'd said. To engage an enemy on uneven terrain, like a tree limb, or a boulder cluster, or the water's surface. An enemy will not wait for you to set up the perfect combat scenario, and if you lose the element of surprise, you must improvise. They didn't have any practice weapons, and had decided on no jutsu either, not even replacements or clones. Itachi had pointed out that a skilled enemy usually wouldn't fall for academy-level tricks, so in the likely event that they failed, a shinobi must be able to hold their own with true combat techniques.

It made total sense, Sakura thought. Itachi would make a good instructor, despite his communication issues. He wasn't quite so reserved when speaking of tactical knowledge.

So they had been chasing each other around the forest for an hour now, and when one of them caught the other they engaged in brief but relentless physical combat before breaking apart, circling around, and starting over again. He'd caught her twice as many times as she'd caught him; he was just too fast and too silent. A true assassin.

And today, he'd apparently decided he wasn't going to go easy anymore. Or play fair. Sakura found it hard to believe he _had_ been going easy until now, with the way he'd wiped the floor with her countless times in the past two weeks.

Restless while waiting for news from her team in the form of a little brown pug, they had begun training together each day to distract from the anxiety. It had taken a few days for Sakura to readjust after weeks of minimal activity, and then the real test began.

From the beginning, Sakura held nothing back except for her inhuman strength—she was trying to learn from him, not accidentally kill him. Itachi had only just recovered, but she knew he could handle everything she threw at him and would be insulted with anything less. If she _had_ pulled any punches, her restraint would have been short-lived; it was almost immediately clear that she needed everything she had just to stay even with him. Itachi pushed her to what she thought were her limits and then showed her they weren't; she could be better, faster, more precise. He also beat her every time, but she'd given up on letting it sting her pride. He was a genius, a prodigy that had been perfecting his craft longer than she'd been alive. She would never beat him with jutsu or weapons. But she could sink a crater beneath his feet, and were it a _real_ fight, she could end it with a single direct blow.

Today she'd made him break a sweat. At one point she'd even scuffed up his cheekbone with a superfast taijutsu combo Kakashi had taught her. They were small things, but they said a lot against _him_, and she was proud of them. She wasn't trying to win. She wanted to prove she could make an opponent of his caliber take her seriously, and she had done that.

Sakura rubbed her shoulder irritably where he'd nearly dislocated it a few minutes ago. She was going to have a black eye, too; she couldn't see herself, but she knew. There was no room for sentiment when it came to their profession, and she didn't want any.

Hearing a faint crackle of foliage off to her left, she tensed and dropped to a crouch. Probably just an animal, but it wasn't safe to stay put any longer. If Itachi hadn't made the sound—and she doubted it—he would have heard it too and would be coming toward her.

Inspiration struck. If he would be coming this way, she would hide and ambush him. She stood up—

And almost immediately felt him behind her.

Sakura whipped around and went for him, hoping to throw him off by attacking instead of defending. It worked for only a second, but it was enough time for her to feint with a right hook, then land a kick to the outside of his left thigh. He winced just slightly—she'd put chakra into her attack. Not enough to break a bone, but she had to regain her advantage somehow. Itachi recovered faster than she could land a third strike, and then he was gone.

A heartbeat later he was behind her again, and his hand closed around the back of her neck. She twisted and tried to elbow him in the face, but his grip tightened over her pressure point. If she kept struggling she would pass out.

"Too slow, Sakura," he murmured softly. She could practically hear his smirk.

For the past several encounters he had been toying with her like this. It was pissing her off…but it was also doing something else.

Sakura tried to block out the feeling of his lips brushing the rim of her ear, the heat of his firm chest against her back, his cool fingertips ghosting over the back of her neck as he slipped away and disappeared again. She tried not to think about the way he rolled her name on his tongue like a delectable piece of candy.

Or what else he'd done with his tongue when they woke up this morning.

Sakura's world was a different place than it had been two weeks ago. She wouldn't have thought sex could change so much, but it had. Long days once spent reading the same few books or running redundant perimeter checks were now spent…_exploring_. Crossing that intimate line had been liberating. If she wanted affection, she sought it without hesitation. If Itachi wanted her, he only had to reach for her and she was his.

Their first time had been a little awkward, even a little uncomfortable, but still unbelievably wonderful. They had discovered physical pleasure together, but Sakura had experienced something she felt was far more valuable: deep feelings of closeness and trust, those first tentative but eager touches, when their bodies knew instinctively what to do but their minds were unsure. No matter what happened, no one else would ever see Itachi the way she had that night: open, physically and emotionally vulnerable. No one else would ever have that part of him. The same was true with her.

In the days and nights since, it had become clear why Itachi was so hot and cold in the beginning, why he would give in to the feelings between them only to shut down and force distance a minute later. He had been wary of his own reactions, of his inability to control them. For all his reserve and detachment, he was still a man—one who had been repressed for most of his life with no outlet for the feelings he'd kept locked away. When the right buttons were pushed—which she was learning to do rather well—he was surprisingly passionate.

Sakura had known it the first time he kissed her, had felt it every time he'd allowed himself to momentarily let go. Now that the stakes had been raised and the barriers lowered, it was like a flood of intensity every time they were together.

A bird flew from its nest, startling her from her reverie. The only downside to this thrilling, sensual new world was that she thought about it all the time. Inwardly berating herself for losing focus when Itachi could be anywhere, she sucked in a deep breath and took to the trees again.

It began to rain. That made it harder to track him, but it didn't really matter. They weren't really sparring or training anymore. It had become a cat and mouse game, equal parts thrilling and infuriating.

Sakura was determined to be the cat this time.

After several minutes of hunting, she realized he was being strategically evasive—leading her somewhere. A dangerous trap to fall into, but if she stayed alert and ready he wouldn't be able to surprise her again. They were nearing the edge of the perimeter; crossing over would instantly give away his position, so he would make his move soon or double back the other way.

The moment she came to the footbridge leading over the small, shallow stream she detected his presence; more an instinctive feeling than any real sign. Without letting on, she crossed the bridge, knowing it was coming any second. He came from behind the last two times, so he would likely assume she was expecting another rear strike and attack from the front instead. No. He would expect her to think that and go for the back again—

Without waiting for a sign, Sakura spun. Itachi flickered into sight in the same second. His expression sharpened as he realized she'd anticipated his move, just before she caught him with a hard uppercut to the chin.

He staggered back, but before she could take satisfaction in it he was on her again, driving her backward with pure physical strength. Without chakra behind her moves it was easy for him to overpower her, and the wet, slippery ground made struggling difficult. Her back hit the nearest tree—but not too roughly—and Itachi pinned her with his weight. She tried to hit him again, but he was expecting it this time and caught her wrists.

"Your instincts have become quite good."

Sakura met his gaze and stilled. He looked the farthest thing from angry; the fact that she'd squarely clocked him seemed to beguile and excite him more than anything. That, in turn, excited _her_. He was deliciously warm and firm against her, and when he pressed her harder against the trunk and lowered his head until their mouths were inches apart her eyes fluttered nearly closed and she held her breath in anticipation.

"But you're too easily distracted. If I were an enemy I could have killed you several times by now."

Her eyes snapped open to glare at him. "I don't think an enemy would play dirty the way you are, Itachi."

"You may be surprised."

"All they'd get for their effort is a missing limb. It wouldn't affect me the same way."

"Hm. And what way is that?" A smug little smirk curved his lips.

"You know damn well, you bastard," she half whispered.

Sakura was infuriated and aroused and he was _enjoying_ it. Well, two could play that game. She squirmed sensually beneath him, pressing her breasts into his chest, sliding her thigh along his as much as she could manage, thinking about how sexy he was and letting him see it in her eyes—all to make it seem like his proximity was affecting her. Truthfully, it _was_, but Sakura subtly exaggerated it.

Itachi caught on to her signals. It was hard not to when all the soft, tantalizing parts of her were rubbing so intimately against him and she was looking at him like she ached for his touch. She had the power to drive him to distraction, but he didn't resent it—not when he knew what lay in store if he just gave in. His eyes darkened and his lips moved just a tiny bit closer to hers.

Sakura slammed her knee into his and tried to wrest her arms free of his grip. It didn't work; he'd felt the tension in her just before she moved and evaded her attack. The grip on her wrists tightened painfully and she was pushed harder against the tree.

"And you say _I_ don't play fair. You've improved greatly, but you still have much to learn." His eyes had lost some of the warmth from a moment ago. He didn't like her trick.

It hadn't been a very nice one, she realized. He'd started it, but she had taken it to a vindictive level. Once her temper was riled it was hard to quiet again.

"Sorry…that was a cheap shot," she murmured. "You're hurting me now."

Itachi released her and slowly backed off, creating just enough space between them that she could move away if she wanted. She didn't.

Watching him as she rubbed the slight numbness from her wrists, she asked, "So you'll keep teaching me?"

"I said I would. As much as you can handle with your chakra levels and affinity."

Smiling playfully, she closed the distance between them again. "Do I have to call you Sensei?"

Instead of being amused by her quip, Itachi became serious and regarded her pensively. "I think you've taught me more than I can ever teach you, Sakura," he answered quietly.

"What do you mean?"

His reply was to pull her against him and kiss her, fiercely and possessively.

Eager to end this pretense of 'training,' Sakura responded fervently. It would seem her reversal tactic had worked after all. Or maybe this was what he'd been planning all along. Apparently she wasn't the only one who couldn't keep her mind on a professional track today.

One moment her feet were on the ground, and the next he lifted her up and flash-stepped back to the clearing outside their cabin. Itachi carried her up the steps and finally set her down so he could open the door—which was more complicated than it should have been, since neither wanted to break apart from their heated kisses. When they finally stumbled inside they wasted no time. His shirt was pulled off so fast it nearly ripped. A moment later hers went flying with equal abandon. The rest of their clothing quickly followed, and then they fell onto the bed and gave themselves over to passion.

Afterward they lay entangled together, tired and content, their naked bodies insulated from the cold by a cocoon of blankets and each other's warmth. Sakura sprawled across Itachi's torso with a possessive liberty she wouldn't have dared before becoming his lover. She loved listening to his steady heartbeat and the sound of his breathing—breaths that were strong and pure because she had refused to give up when it seemed nearly hopeless. He was alive because they _both_ refused to give up. Now the future held so many possibilities—for both of them.

"What will you do, when this is all over?" she drowsily asked him. She turned her head to see his face, pressing her cheek against his warm skin. "After Sasuke is found and things are set right in Konoha."

Itachi stared absently at the ceiling. "I don't know. I've …avoided thinking about it."

Meaning he didn't want to get his hopes up. Sakura could understand, after all, she was beginning to wonder what would become of _them_ when they left here. She knew Itachi didn't take their relationship lightly, but she couldn't presume to know how he felt about where it might be going, and she was reluctant to ask.

"If you came back to Konoha…well, Kakashi says there's still a lot of respect and support for you in ANBU. You could probably get your old job back," she suggested.

He didn't reply right away, but she remained patient. Getting a deeper, heartfelt answer out of him could sometimes take a while.

"I only joined ANBU at my clan's insistence," he said at length, "and the horrors I witnessed and inflicted as part of that group will stay with me forever. I have dealt so much death in my life…" He sighed quietly. "If I returned to Konoha I would seek a more peaceful existence."

"But you do want to go back…?" she asked tentatively, peeking up at him.

He thought about it moment, and nodded faintly. "I would like to," he said slowly, "but it may prove too difficult."

He didn't need to say more. The transition wouldn't be easy; the village may not accept him without fear and distrust. More than that, the haunting memories of his past might be unbearable. As much as she wished he could live happily in Konoha—with her—she knew it wasn't that simple, nor was she that selfish. She gave a soft nod of understanding and snuggled closer to him. Itachi turned onto his side but Sakura stayed where she was, ending up curled into his chest.

"With the situation as it stands now, it will be some time before that day comes, if it ever does," he continued a few moments later.

"Where would you go until then?" she asked softly, willing herself not to grow upset over the idea of parting from him.

"That depends," he murmured.

"On what?" She tried to shift and meet his gaze, but it was difficult with his arm wrapped snugly around her and his chin pressed to the top of her head.

"Will you—" He paused and took a slow, deep breath. "Would you still want…to continue this?"

Sakura had never heard him stumble over words before, and knew it must have been hard for him to ask, to express such an emotional desire. Filled with surprised happiness, she wiggled out of his hold enough to finally look at him.

"Of course I do." She touched his face tenderly, and smiled. "Itachi…even if you remained in exile forever I would find a way to be with you."

Itachi gazed into her luminous eyes, filled with too many strange feelings to give a response. It wasn't necessary, for in that moment there was perfect understanding between them. He tightened his embrace and drew her closer. Sakura sighed contentedly and slipped her arm around him as well. Within minutes they had both drifted to sleep.

* * *

They were startled awake when multiple chakra signatures suddenly appeared right outside the cabin.

Sakura's eyes flew open, her heart racing. Was it Akatsuki? Root? How had they gotten past her perimeter? They had only been asleep a few hours, judging by the dim, grayish-gold light filtering through the window. Itachi shifted to let her go and she pulled the top blanket around her naked form, silently hurried to the window, and peered out inconspicuously from a corner of the frame. What she saw made her frown in disbelief. "What the fuh…"

Itachi wasn't nearly as alarmed; he didn't recognize the signatures, and he would have if their unexpected visitors were who Sakura feared. Her reaction confirmed they were in no serious danger. "That's not an enemy," he remarked somewhat bemusedly, sitting up.

"No…its worse," she said, glancing over her shoulder at him. "It's my teammates."

He gave her a dry look. "How is that worse."

"Aside from the fact that they popped in on us like _this_," she grumbled, glancing down at her unclothed state, "they wouldn't just show up without warning unless something really bad has happened."

Mind racing over what possible emergency could have brought them, she turned from the window and anxiously hunted for her clothes. She was also _very_ glad that teleportation scroll had a fairly large radius and hadn't dropped her teammates right into the cabin. It would be less than pleasant if they suddenly found her and Itachi naked in bed together. They dressed hastily, and Sakura rushed out the door. Itachi followed slightly less urgently behind.

"Sakura!"

Naruto rushed forward and they met near the porch steps in a quick embrace. Sakura pulled back and stared at him; one look at his scuffed appearance and she could tell he'd been in a fight. "Why are you here? What happened?"

He started to answer, but fell warily quiet when Itachi came out the door and down the steps. He stepped back, instinctively seeking distance from the notorious man who had hunted him for so many years. Though he'd known the truth since their last run-in with Madara prompted Kakashi to tell him and Sai everything, those old fears and hatreds would take time to overcome. The other men of Team Kakashi seemed to feel the same as they warily approached, except for Kakashi, though even he was a little on guard.

For his part, Itachi regarded them all neutrally, outwardly calm and expectant. Only Sakura was able to tell that he inwardly shared their tension, and was prepared to deal with whatever hostility might come his way. Caught in the middle of the subtle standoff, added to the obvious emergency of their sudden arrival, she was already feeling on-edge.

"Danzou finally made his play for absolute power," Kakashi finally answered as he, Yamato and Sai stopped a few feet behind her—a good distance from Itachi. "It started at the Kage summit when he somehow convinced the mediator and the other Kages to accept him as the leader of a new alliance. Only a few days after we returned, things started getting ugly. People are being arrested left and right, mostly on false or exaggerated charges, but some not. There's a lot of social upheaval. Even talk of sedition among the jounin and loyalist ANBU."

"He sent Root agents after me!" Naruto added. "Well, first he ordered Sai to kill me…but he knew Sai would disobey him and try to warn me so he had him followed! Kakashi got to us and we teleported out of there just before an entire platoon showed up!"

"How could he get away with this?" she cried angrily. "Has he turned the council to his side as well?"

"It's worse than that," Yamato answered gravely. "The elders Homura and Koharu have been murdered…and Tsunade has been imprisoned under charges of conspiracy."

Both Itachi and Sakura were shocked by the news, but the kunoichi was beside herself. "_What_! How the hell can he do that if she's not even awake!"

"She did wake up," Yamato explained. "This morning. When she learned what had happened during her coma she was in a rage, as you can imagine, and demanded to see Danzou. He refused to speak with her, so she called a meeting with the other elders to get answers. That was the ammunition Danzou needed, and he had his agents give a false report about overhearing a plot against the Hokage. When I found out what happened through the ANBU network I knew there would be trouble with Naruto, that he wasn't safe. I reached them just in time to teleport, though I really have no idea what's going on here…" He looked back and forth between Sakura and Itachi, having only gotten a brief 'don't freak out, he's on our side' warning from Kakashi just moments ago.

"Do we know anything about Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked anxiously. "How she's faring, where she's being held?"

"Nothing," Kakashi said, shaking his head somberly. "Though her probable location is the underground detention sector of ANBU HQ."

"I've been so worried about what's been happening back home. This is worse than anything I imagined," Sakura moaned, running her hands over her face. "I shouldn't have left…I could have protected her!"

"You would be dead, Sakura," Itachi told her quietly. "Danzou doesn't dare kill Tsunade—yet. But he would hold no reservations about you."

"It's true," Kakashi agreed. "He needs the Daimyo's sanction to execute her, and there will have to be a trial. She's in no immediate danger."

"But she is old, and still unwell after her ordeal. She could very easily die due to 'health reasons' during imprisonment," Sai pointed out frankly. He knew Danzou's methods better than any of them.

"We need to deal with that bastard before it's too late!" Naruto exclaimed.

"But how?" Sakura said. "Danzou is the legally appointed Hokage, however dishonestly he obtained the title. We need _proof_ to take him down."

"We'll never find it before Tsunade is dead and his talons are too deeply embedded to remove," Yamato countered. He paused a moment, and then looked directly at Itachi. "What we need…is an assassin."

Weighted silence fell as the six shinobi absorbed and processed exactly what that meant. Sakura looked to Itachi, torn over how to feel. It seemed like the perfect solution to their problem, but at the same time, if Itachi killed the Hokage he could never return to the village. He would be sacrificing himself to a greater cause all over again. Another alternative was to sit back and let Sasuke kill Danzou as he intended, but if that happened there would be no hope for him either, and their long fight to bring him home would have been for nothing.

"No," she said firmly, looking at each of her teammates in turn. "It's not right for someone else to take the fall so we can keep our hands clean. Danzou is a tyrant who came to power through schemes and corruption. You said Konoha is already on the brink of revolution. I don't see how anyone would fault or punish us for removing the source of the problem."

"That's a big gamble, Sakura. If his crimes can't be proven, if—gods forbid—Tsunade doesn't live to pardon us and set things right, we _will_ be held accountable. It could mean our deaths, or at the very least, life as a missing-nin. Are you willing to take that risk?"

"If it means our village and its people are safe from monsters like Danzou and Madara, absolutely," she replied fiercely.

The truth of her words rang through all of them. They should _all_ be ready and willing to make that sacrifice. Why were they shinobi if not to safeguard their village—their home—with their lives?

"We have a lot to think about and discuss before we make any moves," Kakashi said, always the voice of wisdom and experience in their team. He looked to Itachi. "Your help would be invaluable, but you're under no obligation. This isn't part of the bargain."

"I am with you in this," Itachi said. "Danzou's vision of Konoha is what I sacrificed everything to prevent. I would relish the opportunity to participate in his downfall."

Kakashi nodded once. "I'm glad," he said, and offered his hand.

There was a moment's pause as Itachi stared at it, surprised by the gesture. Then he reached out and shook the hand of his supposed former enemy.

Beside him, Sakura smiled. Her team leader seemed to be the only one willing to give more than barest civility to their new ally, but it was more progress than she had expected this soon. Despite what sides of the battlefield Uchiha Itachi and Hatake Kakashi had stood on for the past ten years, they had always highly respected one another.

Naruto hid his feelings about this new camaraderie behind a joint-popping yawn and stretch combo. "Man! Nothing like kicking some traitor ass to wear you out! I could use a nap," he said blearily.

"We could all use some rest," Yamato agreed.

"There's no room for you all here…" Sakura said apologetically. The clearing wasn't even large enough for one of Yamato's wood-jutsu shelters.

"That much is obvious," Naruto snorted, looking over the cabin's shabby exterior. "That thing is the size of a shoebox."

"Says the guy who lives in a closet," she shot back dryly.

Naruto ignored that, and focused on a subject that had bothered him since they arrived. "By the way, what's with your eye?"

"My –" She raised her fingertips to her face and felt a slight tenderness. "Oh." She'd forgotten all about it amid more pleasant distractions. "Training."

"You always heal yourself right away…" He turned suspicious eyes to Itachi, noting the matching bruising on his chin.

Sakura shrugged. "I got sidetracked."

He gave her a dubious look. "Sidetracked? When you came out you looked like you just woke up."

He knew he was onto something and he was fishing. It made her uncomfortable, which in turn made her angry because she had nothing to be embarrassed about. Her temper flared, and she snapped, "Damn, would you like to know what I had for breakfast too?"

"Naruto, there are more important matters at hand here," Kakashi interjected. He had already made the connection his subordinate was attempting, and now was not the time to discuss it.

"Exactly," Sakura huffed. "What else happened at the Kage summit? Did you learn anything about Sasuke?"

Naruto darkened considerably at that. "It's not good," he muttered.

Kakashi elaborated. "Sasuke showed up and caused a major incident. Danzou was his target, but he fled when no one was looking. Apparently Sasuke fought the four remaining Kages and nearly died, but so much destruction was caused by their mixed jutsu that he and his cohorts were able to escape in the chaos."

"We didn't get to see any of it because we were delayed _again_ by Madara," Naruto growled. "This time he admitted to manipulating Sasuke in order to force a confrontation with Konoha. With _me_."

Sakura and Itachi looked to each other, a silent communion of complicated emotions passing between them. Things just kept going from bad to worse. "But what is his reason for doing that?" she wondered.

"To keep the feud between Uchiha and Senju alive, or perhaps to determine once and for all who is strongest," Itachi supplied.

"That makes no sense. It's crazy."

"Madara _is_ crazy. And so is Sasuke for going along with him," Naruto said. Disillusionment was clear in his expression. That look had been mirrored in her own eyes, not too long ago. His faith in Sasuke, the belief that he was just a good person who was lost in his pain, was fading. There was too much evidence stacked against their former teammate. Naruto never gave up, but he was losing hope.

"It seems increasingly likely that this is all connected," Itachi said after a moment. "Is it merely coincidence that Pein attacked Konoha, creating chaos and confusion, just as Danzou was ready to make his move?"

"You think he's working with Madara for Konoha's fall?" Kakashi surmised.

Before Itachi could reply, Sai spoke up, "As militant and corrupt as he is, I think Danzou truly believes he has Konoha's best interests at heart."

"Madara could have promised to get him the Hokage's robes, and Danzou thinks he can solidify his position by 'saving' Konoha after its near-destruction," offered Yamato.

"But Madara is obviously using him. He's driving Sasuke to kill him for his role in what happened to the Uchiha clan," Sakura pointed out.

"With Danzou out of the way and Konoha in a state of disorder, it wouldn't be difficult for Madara to seize power for himself," Itachi theorized.

A dread silence fell as they pondered that possibility, inwardly struck by how simple it all seemed now that it had been said.

Kakashi sighed slowly. "You're very likely right."

"We can't let that happen!" Naruto exclaimed.

"We can't let _any_ of it happen," Sakura added.

"Right," Kakashi said. "We can speculate all we want, but all that matters is securing Konoha, rescuing Tsunade, and eliminating Danzou. We'll head back in the morning. Sakura, the closest town has an inn?" She nodded. "We'll stay there tonight. We need supplies for the return trip anyway. You may as well come with us."

"Alright," she nodded. "We just need a few minutes."

Sakura and Itachi turned for the cabin while the other members of Team Kakashi clustered together rather conspicuously, obviously waiting until they were inside to start talking about them.

They gathered their belongings in wistful silence, aware that they would not be coming back again. Itachi put out the fire while Sakura loaded their foodstuffs into her pack, and when she finished she stopped and just looked around. The little cabin that had been like home these many months was now as dark and cold as the day they first arrived, when Itachi had collapsed on the floor and set off a chain of events that would have profound impact on them both. The unmade, rumpled bed was the only thing that still retained signs of their presence, for only a few hours ago they had been joined together in passion between the old, threadbare sheets.

She had known their time in this idyllic place was coming to an end, but now, just like that, it was abruptly over. Their peaceful snowglobe had been shattered, and all the problems in their real lives had come crashing down on them. Things wouldn't be the same from now on.

Itachi noticed her disquiet and went to her. She looked at him with a small, melancholy smile. "This is so sudden," she murmured.

"But necessary," he replied just as quietly.

She nodded and leaned into him, locking her arms around his waist. "I know, but I'm going to miss this place," she sighed.

Itachi didn't reply, but he too would miss what this place represented for him. In these simple surroundings, through the depth and stillness of winter, his slide into death had been halted. Fate reversed itself somehow and granted him rebirth; a chance to rediscover himself and reconcile that person with who he had been in the past; the first taste of peace and happiness he'd had in many years; the discovery of something wholly unexpected with the beautiful kunoichi in his arms.

Sakura rose up on tiptoe and softly kissed him. She cupped his face in her hands, and he felt the faint warm pulsing in her fingertips as she healed the impressive bruise she'd left on his chin. When she pulled back she smiled again, and brought a healing hand to her own bruise as they gathered their gear and left the tiny cabin for good.

#

Having traveled the route so many times she could run it blindfolded, Sakura led the rest to Moyama. If one foreigner caused whispers and furtive stares in the pastoral village, a group of six set the entire town abuzz, especially when four of them were armed and very obviously shinobi. Word of their arrival had already reached the inn by the time they got there.

"We'll need three double rooms," Kakashi announced at the front desk.

"It'll just be a moment," the old innkeeper said cheerfully. He bustled around the corner, highly excited about having customers who wanted more than a drink at the bar.

Sakura shot Kakashi a curious, slightly indignant look, but decided not to ask why hadn't let her choose a room for herself and Itachi. She didn't care if there were two single beds; she had no intention of sleeping alone.

The innkeeper returned with their keys, and they headed upstairs. Unsurprisingly, they were the only guests in the little two-story inn, and they had the entire floor to themselves. Sakura and Itachi's room was next to Kakashi and Yamato's, and Naruto and Sai were across the hall.

Inside their room, Sakura dropped her pack on one of the beds and turned to Itachi. "I'm going over to the clinic for a minute. Do you want to come?" She didn't really expect him to accept, but he surprised her.

"I suppose I should."

Perhaps he wanted to make up for his terrible attitude toward Junko and her nurses during his time as their unwilling patient. He would have died before Sakura ever found him if not for their help, and he knew it. She smiled knowingly and turned for the door. "Let's go, then."

They encountered Kakashi in the hallway. "Out for an evening stroll?" he asked affably.

"To the clinic," she informed. "The cabin belongs to the local doctor, and I have to return the key."

"Ah. Which way is the market?"

"South. There are some supplies in my pack as well."

"Alright. Everyone will meet up in two hours to solidify our plans."

"Got it."

Sakura and Itachi continued on their way out. It hadn't escaped her notice that he had become very reserved ever since her teammates showed up. She figured it would happen; he'd been the same way with her in the beginning. Even though he had relaxed his tight hold of the mask somewhat, Itachi just wasn't a sociable person, and certainly wasn't going to be as open with everyone else as he was with her. Not now, and possibly not ever.

When they entered the clinic, Junko was nearly as excited as the innkeeper had been. Sakura hadn't been by to chat with her in a couple weeks.

"Sakura!" she greeted warmly, coming out from behind the front desk to embrace the younger woman. "The whole town is talking about you. Are those other people with you from Konoha?"

Sakura nodded. "Those are my teammates. We're going to be leaving tomorrow."

The doctor's face fell slightly. "I'm sad to hear it, but I suppose you're ready to be getting home?"

"Yes. A lot has happened since I've been away."

"I imagine so." She regarded Itachi fully then, and her eyes went wide. "My gods! I wouldn't recognize you if not for that handsome face." She eyed him from head to toe, and seemed to barely withhold from spinning him around for a full look. "Sakura, you've truly worked a miracle," she beamed.

"Thank you for treating my wounds and providing for my care, Junko-san," Itachi said.

Junko smiled at him. "I'm glad to have done my part, keeping you going until Sakura found you."

"Thank you so much, Junko-san," Sakura said. "I don't know how I would have done this without your help."

Junko hugged her again. "It was wonderful to have met you, Sakura." When they parted, Sakura handed over the key to the cabin. "Make sure to give Lady Tsunade my regards, now."

Sakura carefully held her smile, though her pleasant mood evaporated. "I will."

The wistful feeling crept up on her again as they left. She had become fond of the old healer and their little talks over tea when she came for supplies. There was a sense of finality about everything now that the key to the cabin was no longer in her possession. At the same time, part of her was screaming to get back to Konoha and fight for her shishou and her home.

Her conflicting thoughts were interrupted when Kakashi appeared out of nowhere and fell into step beside them. An elderly woman sweeping her porch nearby was startled by the strange occurrence and darted inside her house.

"Yo." In his arms were two large sacks of supplies. "Sakura, I'd like to speak with you."

He didn't need to specify that it was a private conversation. Sakura looked to Itachi. "I won't be long," she assured, and gave him the room key. He took it wordlessly and continued toward the inn, while she and Kakashi found a bench nearby and sat down.

Setting the bags on the ground, he leaned back in a stretch. "So…when did things change between you two?" he asked casually.

She didn't intend to deny it, but she was curious, "What makes you think something's changed?"

He tapped his nose. "I can smell him on you. And vice versa."

That was…weird. But she already knew his sense of smell was as keen as any Inuzuka. "Well, obviously. We've been cooped up together in that tiny cabin for months."

He gave her a pointed look. "Not that kind of smell."

Sakura stared at him blankly a moment, then her eyes widened as it sunk in. She hid her face in her hands, mortified. "Oh gods," she murmured through her fingers. Kakashi merely chuckled, making her want to clout him. At least he wasn't angry, but then, Kakashi always understood. "We've been getting closer for a while," she admitted, sitting back. "But these past couple weeks, since I returned from Konoha the last time…."

"Ah," he said perceptively. "Well, I can tell you're a little worried about it, but don't be. Things happen. You've done nothing wrong. Itachi is technically still a wanted criminal, but to those of us who know the truth, he's a true shinobi of Konoha. Hopefully soon, his status will reflect that. I'm not surprised you came to care for each other." The crinkling around his eyes was all that revealed his smile.

Sakura smiled back, but she was troubled. "It's more than what other people think. I don't really care about that. It's just…I don't know how this will play out. I may be setting myself up for heartbreak. Even if he's pardoned, he may not want to stay in Konoha."

"Hm. Maybe you've given him a reason to?"

"Maybe. But he has a lot of demons to sort out, and Konoha is where most of them originated. I wouldn't try to hold him if he's unhappy."

Kakashi nodded understandingly. "Well…you'll deal with that if it comes. Never underestimate the power of a second chance."

"Right," she said quietly, feeling a little better. After a moment she cast a long, skeptical look at her team leader. "Kaka-sensei…if you already knew about us then why the double room?"

He shrugged. "Why do you think?"

She thought about it a moment. "To keep Naruto quiet," she concluded. "Well, he's going to figure it out eventually, and anyway, we're not going to hide it."

"I think he already knows, and the fact that he hasn't completely freaked out proves he _does_ understand the complexity of the situation. But you do understand why he has a problem?"

"Of course," she said, her voice softening a little. "Itachi was a personal source of fear for him for many years. He's taking it better than I thought he would." She sighed quietly. "I'll keep it out of his face for now." She didn't think that would be a problem anyway; Itachi wasn't one for public displays of affection.

They sat together in silence for a minute, watching the simple daily life of the village. Sakura looked at him and smiled to herself. Kakashi always knew when she was troubled, and always managed to make her feel better without any overt motivational speeches.

"This place is kind of nice," he mused, slouching further into the bench. "Quiet…peaceful…I think I could like living here."

She looked at him sidelong. "There's only one copy of Icha Icha in the whole town."

"…Then again, I could never live in a place with such an appalling lack of culture."

Sakura laughed, shaking her head. They remained there another minute, and then they grabbed the supply bags—he made sure to fob one off on her—and started back toward the inn.

* * *

Itachi returned to the inn alone and made his way upstairs, silently passing the open doors of the two other rooms before stopping at his own. A moment after he stuck the key in the lock, a terse voice addressed him from behind.

"Where's Sakura?"

Unsurprised, he turned to find Naruto leaning against the doorframe of his room, arms crossed. He'd been expecting the jinchuuriki to confront him the moment he was alone. How ironic that it was once again in the narrow hallway of an inn. "With Kakashi," he answered mildly. He turned the lock and started to open the door.

"She's in love with your brother, you know."

His tone was cold, almost mocking. Itachi gave no outward reaction other than to turn and regard the antagonistic shinobi with a cool, level stare.

Naruto glared back with equal intensity. "She always has been. When he left she begged me to bring him home, and I've been trying to keep that promise to her ever since," he continued matter-of-factly. He paused a moment, and shrugged. "When he comes back…who knows what'll happen?"

If he expected to provoke him into some petty argument, he was sorely mistaken. Itachi merely held the challenging gaze another moment, and then opened the door and entered his room.

Staring incredulously at the closed door, Naruto scoffed. He felt Yamato and Sai come up behind him in the doorway, obviously overhearing the brief exchange from inside the room. "How can she like that guy?" he wondered disdainfully. "He's even harder to talk to than Sasuke. He didn't even _react_—he really must not care."

"I think you're wrong on all counts, Naruto," Yamato said reprovingly, having just heard the full story minutes ago from his teammates. "He's just not going to rise to your baiting. And do you really think Sakura still has those feelings? That's not giving her very much credit."

He turned to face his teammates. "What?"

"If she did still love Sasuke after all he's done to hurt the two of you, after all the harm he's caused, that would make her both blind, and stupid," Sai said bluntly, ignoring Naruto's glare, as usual. "Even _you_ don't feel the same about him as you used to. Right?"

"I guess…" he muttered reluctantly.

"Then stop trying to cause problems," Yamato warned.

"I'm _not_!" he protested indignantly.

"You may not realize it, but you are. Sakura's choices are her own, and we need all the allies we can get right now. _Especially_ Uchiha Itachi. Everything else can be dealt with later."

Naruto stared at his teammates, surprised and annoyed that they weren't taking his side. He knew—in theory—that Itachi was not the monster everyone thought, but that didn't mean he had to like the idea of him cozying up to his best friend. And now he couldn't even express his reservations because they needed Itachi to fight with them. Even more rankling was the fact that Itachi, not himself, might be the only one who could get through to Sasuke. "Damn Uchiha's," he grumbled, "always at the center of things." With a heavy sigh, he followed his teammates back into the room and closed the door.

The walls were thin, and with his honed senses Itachi clearly heard what was said after he'd gone. He listened until they returned to their rooms, and then went to shower.

As much as it irritated him, he couldn't help but dwell on Naruto's insinuations; that Sakura was using him as a replacement for his brother, that when Sasuke returned she would want nothing more to do with him. He was lying, of course, because anyone who knew Sakura would know she was incapable of such fickle heartlessness. Her other teammates' reaction confirmed it.

But the possibility that she had once loved—and might still love—his brother…_that_ he couldn't dismiss so easily.

Sakura had only discovered him in that clinic because he fit Sasuke's description. She had only made a deal with him because he promised to help her save Sasuke. Itachi owed his life to her feelings for his brother. Those were facts.

Itachi had never experienced jealousy before, but he knew the deep, twisting feeling inside of him was exactly that. It was as irrational as he'd always believed it to be, because he knew from her own words that while Sakura cared about Sasuke and wanted to save him, she was also angry and resentful, and felt personally betrayed by his choices. She was hardly seeking to run straight into his arms. Yet the feelings of envy and possessiveness arose despite logic. He had gained something wonderful and now it was being threatened, no matter how speculatively.

The door of the main room clicked faintly, and he felt Sakura's presence. His thoughts were ridiculous, he concluded. He would speak to her, and that would settle it. He finished his shower and dressed, and when he emerged he found Sakura lying on one of the beds, watching him. She gave him a sweet but troubled smile as he went to sit beside her. She scooted until her head was in his lap, and then sighed.

Whatever she and Kakashi had talked about had lightened her mood somewhat, but she was clearly still distraught over the situation in Konoha and the danger to her mentor. Suddenly the thought of discussing her feelings for Sasuke seemed trivial.

"I'm so worried about what's happening," she said. "I wish we could just teleport back to Konoha and deal with this right now."

Once again, he didn't offer her false assurances, simply combed his fingers through her soft hair and offered silent support. He was never good with these things, but she seemed to take comfort in what he could give. After several quiet minutes she got up, kissed him briefly, and went to shower.

Itachi busied himself with checking the spare brace of kunai he found on the opposite bed, which he assumed was meant for him. It had been many months since he'd worn weapons, having been stripped of his when Madara took him and left him for dead in that compound, but tying the leg wrappings and strapping them on was fast and effortless after so many years. The extra weight at his thigh felt welcome and natural. He was deftly spinning one around his fingers when Sakura came out of the bathroom.

"Those are Kakashi's," she said, rubbing a towel through her hair. "They left in a hurry so there aren't many extra weapons to go around, but it's better than nothing." Tossing the towel aside, she picked up her own kunai holster, set one high-booted foot on the mattress, and began strapping it on. "Besides, once the fighting starts we can just take the weapons of our enemies."

Itachi smirked approvingly. Over the past months she had been a gentle, compassionate healer, albeit with a no-nonsense edge. He'd only had glimpses of her fiery side, and despite what he knew from her reputation, he had never seen the warrior. It was emerging now, as she mentally and physically prepared for a battle that was very personal to her. Haruno Sakura was a shinobi first, a medic second. Itachi found this complete picture of his lover more impressive and enticing than ever.

When finished, she came back and sat on the bed with him again. "What's wrong?" she asked him. Taken aback, he shook his head faintly. Sakura didn't buy it. "I can tell something is bothering you. What is it?"

She had learned to read him far too well. He hadn't even been thinking about it, and certainly hadn't given any noticeable sign. "It's not important."

"If it upsets you, it is," she insisted. "Itachi…tell me. Please."

Those piercing jade eyes were filled with concern, and he knew she wasn't going to let it drop. Still, it was a long moment before he decided to reply, unsure of how to even conduct this kind of conversation.

"Is it true…" he began slowly, "that you loved Sasuke?"

Sakura's eyes slowly widened. Automatically she thought to reply '_I love all my teammates, and once upon a time that included…_' but by his measured tone, she knew exactly what context he meant, and her stomach twisted uncomfortably. She had hoped—perhaps foolishly—that this would never come up. "Who told you that?" she demanded mutedly.

"Naruto."

Outrage flooded through her. Just when she thought he was being remarkably mature. "I don't know what he's trying to pull, but he has no right!"

Her tirade died shortly, anger receding to the background as she gazed at Itachi. His tight, distant expression said he believed it to be true. And her defensive outburst was what decided him. She sighed slowly and reached for his hand, but he wouldn't look at her.

"It took a long time to figure this out for myself, but this is the truth," she began quietly. "Sasuke was my first crush. An obsessive, superficial crush. I'm not proud of some of the things I did to impress him, and I'm not sure what started it; maybe my rivalry with Ino, maybe my need to be appreciated by someone I thought was superior to me. I wasn't very confident as a girl," she added sheepishly. "Once we became teammates it didn't take long to realize I didn't understand him at all. When I got to know him a little and saw how painful and lonely his life was, I started to truly care about him. I tried to help him in any way I could, but he still treated me like I wasn't there half the time, and like a huge burden the rest." She huffed wryly. "Despite him being the biggest jerk I knew, I still tried to win him over for reasons I can't explain even now. But time and perspective have made it clear—it wasn't love. That's the name children give it because they don't know any better." _But that's changed_, she thought to herself. _I know better now_.

A long silence passed as Itachi carefully absorbed her words. Finally, he wanted to know, "Why does Naruto still believe it to be true?"

Again she sighed, trying not to be angry with her best friend. "I'm not sure he does, anymore," she said. "He doesn't know what to make of you not being an enemy, and he probably can't wrap his head around us being together. This is his nosy, idiotic way of protecting me."

Sakura looked into his eyes and smiled, but her searching gaze held a hint of uncertainty; a silent hope that he accepted her words. Itachi realized his worry really had been irrational. "I didn't truly believe it," he said quietly. "It was just…startling."

"That's understandable. It startled me, too," she laughed faintly, but then sobered. "Naruto…I should clobber him…but I just can't this time. It's complicated for all of us."

She crawled forward and climbed into his lap. "Were you jealous?" she asked cheekily. The flat look he gave her was answer enough. She brushed a stray hair from his brow with soft fingertips and grinned. "Don't be," she whispered. "I'm all yours."

His hands smoothed over the slender curves of her waist, drawing her closer. "Is that so?"

"Mhm," she murmured onto his lips, and then proved it by kissing him with all she had.

No sooner had their kiss deepened to something more passionate when there was a knock at the door. "_Sakura…_" said Sai's muffled voice. "_We're meeting in Kakashi's room to go over the plan._"

With a soft groan, Sakura sat back and called over her shoulder, "We'll be right there."

She climbed off him and they went to leave, but just before they reached the door Sakura turned and pulled him into another intense, dizzying kiss for good measure. After a long moment she broke away with a breathless smirk and headed out the door, and Itachi followed after with a tiny, satisfied smile.

* * *

Next Chapter: _The Reunion_


	13. The Reunion

**Vespertine**

Chapter Thirteen: The Reunion

* * *

_These scars we wear remind us_

_The more we change _

_The more we're all the same_

* * *

Sakura stretched, slowly lifting her arms over her head and arching her back until her spine popped satisfactorily. With a sigh, she stood and walked away from the fire pit to where Naruto and Sai sat talking in a shadowed corner. The night was cold and Yamato's wooden shelter didn't provide any creature comforts, so she was curious as to why they had removed themselves from the only source of warmth. Their muted voices trailed off as she approached.

"What are you guys talking about?" she asked lightly, though she was inwardly suspicious that the subject of their conversation might be her personal life.

"Sasuke," Sai answered frankly, surprising her.

She sat down with them and curled her knees to her chest. "What about him?"

"He's a bastard and a moron, what else?" Naruto grumbled. "I can't believe he seriously thought he could take on all five Kages at the same time. His brother must have cracked his head."

Sakura smiled thinly, though she felt little humor. "What do you think will happen when we find him?"

"…I don't know anymore," he admitted. "The answer always used to be so simple." That could be said for a lot of things, he knew.

"We don't really have to find him anymore," Sai pointed out. "He's coming to us, in Konoha. All we have to do is wait."

They fell quiet, thinking about what lay ahead. The meeting at the inn had been brief; after having time to think on it individually they had all agreed that the only thing that mattered was the safety and future of Konoha. Whatever happened, they would all play their parts and accept the possible consequences of their actions. They had left at dawn and traveled all day with minimal breaks, and were now only a few miles from the northern border of Fire. They would reach Konoha tomorrow night.

Aside from the occasional crackle of the fire, it was almost too quiet. Yamato had gone to set a perimeter, Kakashi was on first watch, and Itachi had gone outside as well. From his faint chakra signature, Sakura guessed he was probably on the roof. He had been more withdrawn today than he had been in weeks, and she knew it wasn't just because he was around relative strangers who didn't really like him. He was about to face his past head on—Konoha, Danzou, Sasuke, maybe even Madara. She couldn't imagine what he must be going through mentally.

Naruto was going through his own inner turmoil, and so for his sake, and maybe for hers as well, she steered the conversation in a different direction.

"So Danzou ran away from the conflict at the summit…the other Kages probably aren't going to take that well."

"Especially considering it was his mess in the first place," Sai added. "He's sure to lose credibility with them."

Naruto frowned in thought. "Let's hope so. Maybe we won't have to kill him after all. I wish I could have met with Gaara to find out more about it."

"I don't think it really matters," Sai remarked. "Danzou won't step down quietly."

"I don't think Itachi will let him, in any case," Sakura murmured.

Mentioning Itachi darkened Naruto's mood further. He had been keeping as far from his former enemy as possible all day, but now he couldn't avoid recognizing how much had changed. In _every_ way. He couldn't hold it in anymore, and finally had to ask, "Why are you with him, Sakura-chan?" Her expression immediately turned guarded and defensive, and she looked about two seconds away from getting up and leaving. He sighed, and tried to make his tone less scornful. "I just want to know, okay? I know he's not what we all thought, but he's just so…cold."

"I've heard that when two people are isolated together for long periods of time they can become attracted to each other," Sai posited.

Now it was Sakura's turn to sigh, exasperated with both of them. "That may have been a tiny part of it," she admitted, "but there's a lot more to it than that."

"What if he's not right in the head?" Naruto said bluntly. Sakura glared, but he only shrugged. "I mean, even if it was on orders, he _did_ kill his clan."

"And he carries the weight of that every single day," she said. "His loyalty to Konoha has cost him dearly, in ways that don't show on the outside. And he's not cold at all. I don't think he was ever very outgoing, but…imagine spending half your life hiding who you really are from everyone—even those you care most about. Do you think _you_ would have an easy time opening up around people?"

Naruto did know what it was like to keep secrets from everyone because the consequences could be dire if they knew the truth, as well as how hard it was to trust those people when you knew they wouldn't accept the real you. The circumstances and the secret were vastly different, but he understood nonetheless. "But he does with you?"

Sakura nodded faintly. "Little by little, and I think saving his life had a lot to do with that."

"What about Sasuke?" he asked quietly.

"I don't love Sasuke, Naruto," she sighed. "I don't think I ever _really_ did, and he certainly doesn't love me. We're not kids anymore. It's time to see things the way they really are."

Much as he hated to admit it, she was right, and her words resonated on many levels. Nothing had been the same since his confrontation with Pein. His eyes had been forced open by the revolutionary Akatsuki leader and he couldn't close them again. The idea that the world would be a better place with only a few motivating words, and that the simple offer of friendship would make everyone get along…it was a fantasy. The Raikage, Madara, and even Itachi once had said much the same thing to him in different ways. He couldn't keep deluding himself, and the reality check he was currently struggling with included facing the hard truth about his once-best friend.

He had to be sure. "You're happy?"

Sakura smiled softly. "I am." She looked to Sai as well, who simply shrugged. He had no history with Itachi and had no problem with it either way.

Naruto sighed in reluctant acceptance. "This is gonna take some getting used to."

"Maybe not as much as you think. The two of you share some common ground."

He gave her a hesitantly curious look. "How so?"

"Well…you're both brothers to Sasuke, and you're both relentlessly driven to protect him—from others and from _himself_. And you both want peace for the shinobi world more than anything."

Naruto said nothing, but he was thinking about that bizarre encounter in the forest roughly a year ago; he'd been certain Itachi would finally capture him and hand him over to Akatsuki…only he hadn't. He had only wanted to talk about Sasuke, and Naruto had derisively stated 'I'm more of a brother to him than _you_ ever were.' Itachi had actually smirked at him, but it hadn't occurred to him why. Only now did Naruto fully realize the irony of those words.

The conversation died out shortly after that and they migrated back to the fire pit and climbed into their bedrolls. Everyone remained awake but no one spoke again, even when Yamato returned. The heavy stillness of anticipation hung in the air, making it hard to sleep. Tomorrow, one way or another, everything was going to change.

The fire had dwindled to little more than embers by the time Itachi returned. Sakura had wondered about him more than once as she lay there silently, but understood that he needed time alone and kept herself from going to him. His bedroll lay next to hers, and she smiled softly as he settled in. He gazed at her, studying her face, but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Her hand crept out slowly and she hooked two of her fingers around his, wishing she could curl up with him and feel his arms around her. Itachi's hand wrapped around hers in return, and silent understanding passed between them. Sakura smiled and closed her eyes, and at some point late in the night, she eventually drifted to sleep.

Sai woke them just before dawn. The anticipation of what they were about to face had doubled, and they were silent as they broke camp and slipped into the forest, heading toward Konoha.

* * *

Much closer to their location than the traveling Leaf ninja would have guessed, another small group of shinobi prowled a cave complex, restlessly waiting with the same heavy anticipation for their orders.

Who knew how long they would be waiting, with their leader still unconscious after his battle with the five Kages.

Not for the first time, Karin wished she were a true medic. If she had been properly trained like the fifth Hokage, or even—she hated to admit it—like that pink-haired girl who used to be Sasuke's teammate, she might be able to do more for the man lying pale and still on the bed than worry and lurk and change a few bandages.

Despite everyone's first impressions based on who she ran with, Karin was not a ninja. She _should_ have been, and she would make a damn good one too with her ability, but her life had been unconventional at best, and the world was hardly fair. A lot of things _should_ be that weren't, she thought, gazing at her leader-slash-sort of friend-slash-almost…whatever the hell he was to her now. Complicated didn't even begin to sum up Uchiha Sasuke and the nature of his association to her, and it was only going to get more complicated as time went on.

With more tenderness than she would ever show if he were awake—or if the others were around—she reached out and brushed his shaggy hair from his brow with hesitant fingertips. Sasuke stirred at her touch, brow furrowing as pain returned with awareness, and she withdrew her hand as if burned.

Groggy as only one waking from unconsciousness could be, he opened his eyes, and after a long moment of haziness and the sudden fresh pain of his injuries, finally focused on her. "Karin," he murmured thickly. "What happened?"

"What do you remember?"

"…Fighting. Being crushed…."

Karin nodded, recalling that terrifying instant when his chakra had disappeared and she thought he was dead. "Madara did a space-time jutsu to get you out of there, and then he sent me to heal you," she explained.

Accepting her answer impassively, his eyes traveled over the bare stone walls and took in the spare, dark room lit only by a single oil lamp on the bedside table. "What is this place?"

"Another of Madara's compounds, in Fire. You've been out for almost a week."

That surprised him, though he said nothing. His Mangekyo was still unmastered and he hadn't been prepared to use Susanoo…it must have been too much for him. Again he wondered how Itachi had managed to wield such power so effectively in such a weakened state.

"He said he purposely sent you to Iron to fight the Kages so you would be forced to activate Susanoo," Karin continued, indignant on Sasuke's behalf. "You and Pein…and Itachi…it's like he's trying to collect powerful doujutsu, or something. But that's not all," she huffed. "Suigetsu said that after Madara sent us out of there, he demanded the Kages hand over the eight- and nine-tails, and he talked about some crazy plan to use all of them to create a super powerful _tenth_ bijuu…and how he plans to become the jinchuuriki."

Sasuke frowned. "Why does he want that?"

"He said the Rikudo Sennin was a real person and that he was the original jyuubi container. Madara wants the same power, and he plans to use it to um, make the moon a giant Sharingan and put every living thing under a genjutsu. An eternal tsu…Tsukiyomi, I think it's called. The Kages refused of course, and now Madara's gone and started a war with the five nations."

"Not a very eloquent explanation, but you got the gist of it," Madara's voice rang out coldly, as he slowly materialized at the foot of the bed.

Both tensed at the sudden appearance and Sasuke sat up very carefully, trying not to show any strain. He cast a long, hard look at the unwelcome intruder. "What is your intention with this moon plan?" he demanded.

Madara lifted his gloved hands in a grand, sweeping gesture. "Eternal peace, of course."

"Through mass-hypnosis?" Karin snorted, glaring at the one who'd brought nothing but trouble to them since the day he appeared.

"The ends justify the means," he replied simply.

"You _would_ say that."

"Where are Suigetsu and Juugo?" Sasuke wanted to know, changing the subject before Karin got herself into trouble he was in no state to help her out of.

She began to reply, but Madara beat her to it. "Around, being useless," he answered wearily. "All your followers seem to be good for is saving your hide, since you can never seem to enter a fight without nearly getting killed. I had hoped you might at least weaken one of the Kages so I could take a hostage, but it seems I expected too much of you. If only Itachi hadn't been so treacherous…."

He sighed dramatically. "At any rate, since the five Kages so obstinately refused to cooperate, we will have to fall back to the original plan of taking the jincuuriki by force. Kisame is looking for the hachibi, so in the meantime we will start with the kyuubi. Once we have Uzumaki Naruto, you can take all the revenge on Danzou you like." He threw his hands up happily. "Everybody wins. Be ready to leave for Konoha in the morning."

He vanished as suddenly as he'd come.

"Why does he always act like such a lunatic? And that plan of his is fucking crazy, too," Karin grumbled. Madara scared her, and with good reason, but he was also damned infuriating. She studied Sasuke's troubled expression and frowned. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Going to Konoha serves my purpose," he answered, staring darkly at nothing. "Danzou's death is mine."

She resisted the urge to shake him. He could be so stupidly single-minded! "Yeah, and what about the other part? You know, where Madara takes over the world with a giant _eyeball_? I'm not saying don't kill Danzou, but if you throw Konoha into chaos by killing their Hokage right now, that's one less village to stand against this craziness. Anyway, I thought that Uzumaki guy was your friend once."

A long, brooding silence fell as his mind raced with a jumble of conflicting thoughts. He exhaled slowly and met her gaze. "I never said I would let Madara carry out his insane plan, and I have no intention of helping him capture another jinchuuriki."

Karin relaxed a little, glad he was only pretending to go along. It was hard to tell sometimes. "What are we going to do, then?" He remained silent, once again filled with gloomy thoughts he never wanted to share. "Sasuke…" she prodded softly, and placed her hand on his forearm, just above the bandages. Her cheeks grew hot, but she kept it together even when his dark eyes fell to where she touched him. "Please don't keep us in the dark. We're your team, and we're with you 'til the end. At least—at least I am," she murmured.

Sasuke's eyes traveled from her hand up her arm, to her face, and he just looked at her for the longest time. She hadn't touched him since…well, since he touched _her_, all those week ago. Her invasion of his space wasn't as annoying as he thought it would be, and he felt that faint twinge of something strange that happened sometimes when he looked at her lately. Her eyes were downcast, her aura nervous and shy, which wasn't like her at all, and he didn't like it.

It bothered him that she—and the two others who had followed him through thick and thin—felt so wary and uncomfortable around him. His first teammates had never hesitated to be themselves, even when he made it clear they annoyed him…had he really become such an asshole? He had certain goals and priorities and nothing would stop him, but he had come to realize he valued his comrades and needed their support.

"Go find the others," he told her finally. Karin looked up at him again, a flicker of hopeful approval in her ruby colored eyes. "We don't have much time."

* * *

An ominous stillness hung over Konoha, though it was not anticipation of confrontation that caused the unusual silence, but the fear of it. The night air was somber and cold, the streets dark and deserted far too early to be normal. The people were shut in their homes with the curtains drawn, either from a strictly enforced curfew, or in an attempt to protect themselves and their families.

Sakura figured it was both, with a heavy influence of the first, if the Root agents stalking the rooftops and outer walls were any indication.

"There's a blind spot in the guard," Kakashi informed mutedly, nodding toward a particular point where the watchtower's east wall made it difficult to see around the curved battlement. The weakness would have taken an enemy an hour to discover and by that time they would be caught, but these particular infiltrators had lived behind those walls all their lives, and sneaking into their village undetected was only slightly more difficult than walking through the main gates. "Let's go."

Silent as shadows, the six shinobi dashed and flickered across several yards of sparse tree cover to the base of the wall. Kakashi nodded to Itachi, who made a single-handed seal and focused his spinning crimson gaze on the top of the wall.

The group watched intently as the two nins above began flailing their arms about their heads, swatting at flying entities only they could see. Sai opened a scroll and quickly painted two ravens, which took life and form and flew upward to mingle with their imaginary brothers. The Root agents couldn't tell real from illusionary, and in their flustered distraction they didn't notice the two ink ravens reform into snakes and wrap themselves around their necks. Moments later they collapsed.

The infiltrators rushed up the wall and dragged the unconscious bodies into the watchtower, bound them with wire, and appropriated their weapons. Then they quickly descended the other side, alighted silently on a nearby rooftop, and disappeared down the alley below. Less than two minutes had passed since they'd emerged from the cover of the forest.

They made their way swiftly but carefully through the darkened streets, keeping a constant eye on the rooftops for patrolling Root agents, and stopped two blocks from the Hokage Tower.

"It's after midnight…do you think Danzou will be at his office or his home?" Naruto wondered.

Yamato peeked around the corner and back again. "I can see the office window from here. The lights are on."

That would make getting to Danzou more difficult, and would make what they were about to do more public, but they had all resolved themselves to whatever might happen.

They darted across the street and concealed themselves in the shadows once more, made sure it was still clear, and dashed the remaining distance to the tower, slipping into the alley beside the building. Yamato touched a wooden doorframe and melded with it, disappearing into the structure. They waited tensely, and a few minutes later a window slid open above their heads and Yamato poked his head out. The rest of them quickly climbed up and in. The wood-jutsu user had found them an empty room on the third floor.

Itachi formed another seal and briefly closed his eyes, and the air around them subtly shifted and grew heavy. The genjutsu was flawlessly executed; Team Kakashi only felt the change because he had excluded them. In the total silence of the room, their trained ears could very faintly distinguish the sounds of several distant thuds in various locations around them. Itachi opened his swirling crimson eyes again and nodded once. It was done.

Kakashi opened the door and they emerged into the hall. There was a Root agent at each end of the corridor, slumped awkwardly on the ground. Behind the white masks their wide eyes stared at things only they could see, their chests heaving and muscles twitching as they engaged in illusionary combat with unknown enemies. It was the same in every hall, at the foot of the stairs, and even right outside the Hokage's office.

And so without any interference, Naruto threw open the heavy double doors.

Danzou stood at the Hokage's desk reading a scroll, his back to them. He turned sharply at the unannounced intrusion to his office, and his face fell in a scowl.

"I wondered if you would try to come back. I thought you might have simply run away. It would have been the smarter choice." He dropped the open scroll on the desk and turned to face them. "I assume my guards are all dead?"

"Unlike _you_, we don't kill indiscriminately," Naruto said, stepping across the threshold. "But they won't be getting up any time soon."

Danzou regarded them coldly, calculatingly, as they fully entered the room. He certainly understood the situation he was in, but he showed no sign of concern. "I'm curious, how did you get all the way here without being seen?"

"Genjutsu."

Danzou's single visible eye narrowed. "Impossible. I would have detected it."

Kakashi shrugged. "Not from a Mangekyou Sharingan you wouldn't."

Last in the group behind Sakura, Itachi entered the room.

The old man paled as the last person he had ever expected to see again strode forward purposefully and stopped directly before him. But he recovered from his shock quickly, and his expression hardened into a sneer.

"Well well, look what the fox dragged in. You're looking surprisingly well for a dead man." Wheels turning in his mind, he looked suspiciously to Sakura. "Perhaps that's _your_ doing?" Before the glaring kunoichi could answer, the truth became perfectly clear to him. "Ah…I see. That's where you've been all this time." He huffed with quiet laughter. "To tell the truth, I didn't even notice you were gone until I had Tsunade imprisoned and there was no apprentice to defend her. It seems I've underestimated you, kunoichi. And your master."

Sakura opened her mouth to give an angry retort but Danzou turned away from her, brushing her off as unimportant despite what he'd just said. He similarly ignored the other members of her team. His focus was completely on the Uchiha.

"And what do you hope to accomplish by appearing to me now?" he asked derisively. "The same old threat to expose me? I'm the Hokage, and you are still a clan-killing missing-nin. Everyone else involved is dead. No one will believe you."

Beside him, Sakura seethed with indignation, but Itachi's bladed eyes burned with cool loathing. "No," he agreed quietly. "I've come with a much simpler purpose."

Danzou understood perfectly, and a very palpable tension filled the room; the heavy, stormlike atmosphere of malevolent chakra that arises before two powerful shinobi fight. "I suppose this was inevitable," he sighed wearily. "I trust your accomplices won't interfere."

"Like we'd need to," Naruto scoffed darkly.

Slowly, Danzou slipped his right arm from beneath his robe. They were all surprised to realize it was unbound and perfectly usable; he had only been pretending disability all these years.

Suddenly they all tensed, each becoming abruptlyaware of other chakra signatures closing in with purposeful swiftness. Seven heads turned toward the window, which shattered a moment later and collapsed along with part of the wall.

All that could be seen through the dust was a giant mutated arm the color of mud. A moment later they could see it was attached to a giant of a man, who was obviously in the second stage of Orochimaru's curse-seal. He pushed into the room, and behind him was a white haired man carrying a huge sword that looked strangely familiar. He was shouldered aside by a tall woman with fiery red hair. And behind her, last to enter the office and face its shocked occupants, was Uchiha Sasuke.

Naruto and Sakura gasped in unison, shocked by what they saw in their former teammate. There was a darkness around Sasuke that had never been there before, even after he'd gone to Orochimaru. His chakra swirled about him thickly, black with hatred and near-madness. This was not the Sasuke they had known and loved.

Neither assault team had expected the other to be there, and they regarded each other in wary confusion. Danzou would have tried to make an escape in the chaos, but there was no way out. Team Kakashi blocked the door, and Taka blocked the hole that had once been the window. Momentarily unnoticed, he inched backward slowly, away from his now doubled enemies.

The greatest shock was Sasuke's. Within moments of his entrance, all the rage and malevolent hostility drained from his aura, his face going pale and wide-eyed as he stared at the tall figure before him. An icy heaviness flooded through his limbs and settled in his gut, and his heart lurched in his chest as he realized this was no ghostly apparition come to haunt him, that he had not simply gone mad with grief. His brother was truly standing here, very real and very much alive.

"Itachi…!" he whispered hoarsely. He nearly dropped his sword, his hands gone numb.

The room went very still. Itachi regarded Sasuke silently, his brow furrowed slightly as he, too, noted the dark changes in his brother, and knew he was largely to blame for it. The Sharingan masked any emotion that was in his eyes, but inwardly, Itachi's feelings were a whirlpool of anger, concern, and heavy disappointment. And somewhere behind it all, there was guilt.

It came through in his voice as he finally spoke. "Sasuke…what have you been doing?"

Sasuke flinched as if struck. "W-what?" he rasped. He felt sick. This couldn't be happening. He had seen Itachi die with his own eyes! He had torn himself apart with grief and self-loathing in hindsight. He had spent the last several months hell-bent on revenge for his brother, for his family, to find the appropriate outlet for his own displaced hatred. But Itachi was actually still alive and…angry with him?

"You have every right to seek justice, but look at yourself. This is not what I wanted for you. This is—"

The air near the new intruders shifted; a warping spiral that slowly took the shape of a man. When the distortion stopped Uchiha Madara stood with them. His masked visage turned one way, then the next, quickly assessing the situation. Almost immediately he focused on Itachi.

"Oh dear, this is awkward," he sighed.

Nearly forgotten until now, Danzou was the first to speak. "What are you doing here, Madara?"

"Seeing to my interests," he replied plainly, crossing his arms. He never once looked away from Itachi, who stared back at him with undisguised hatred.

"Hah! We knew you guys were working together!" said Naruto.

"Together?" Madara drawled. "I wouldn't say that much…. True, we collaborated to create the instability in Konoha, but for very different purposes. You see, Danzou here is a warmonger, and me? I just want peace and unity for every one of us."

Naruto stared at him in aggravated confusion. "What are you _talking_ about, you crazy son of a bitch?"

Sasuke had managed to fight through his initial shock, and finally came back to himself. He turned on Madara in barely restrained fury. "_You_ _knew!" _he snarled. "All this time you've been pushing me to avenge my brother and you _knew_ he was alive!"

"Actually, I didn't," he explained calmly, "or I would have rectified his continued existence." He shrugged. "What does it matter anyway? Does the fact that you are both alive make what was done to you any more bearable? The one responsible stands before you; will you let him live just because he didn't _completely_ ruin your life?"

Now Danzou was outraged. "You degenerate swine. You always intended to betray me." He cast a withering glance at the members of Taka. "And you send your dogs to do your dirty work."

"And _you_ issued a kill-on-sight order for Sasuke when you knew I had plans for him. We are no different, only I am simply smarter and better prepared."

Tension scorched the air as everyone present felt outraged and betrayed by everyone else. Spiked fury coursed through the room, choking off the possibility of sorting matters out. However, Sasuke's rage burned hottest and brightest, and refused to be ignored.

"How much of what you told me was lies?" he demanded, nearly shouting at the masked shinobi.

"Truth and lies are all a matter of perspective."

Sasuke gaped, astounded, at last recognizing the full extent of Madara's evil. His handsome features twisted into something ugly and vicious and he attacked with an inarticulate cry of rage. Sasuke had never moved so fast; one instant he was there, and the next he was on top of the masked nin. He'd thought long and hard about how to solve the problem of Madara's seeming incorporeality, and now he hit him with a simultaneous assault of Chidori and Amaterasu, lightning and black fire.

The expulsion of such immense power almost knocked Sasuke off his feet and cost him nearly half of his chakra reserves. But it worked. Madara couldn't avoid both at the same time, and though he deflected the deadlier Amaterasu, the Chidori caught him in the shoulder.

He staggered and leapt away, shocked and more heavily injured than he should have been for a glancing blow. He really was little more than a weak shell of his former self, and it was clear now why he had manipulated others into doing his bidding.

Sasuke went for him again, but this time Madara was prepared and dodged with equally blinding speed. He shot for the opening in the wall. Karin was blocking his path, but with no time to react, was roughly knocked aside. She fell strangely, not throwing her hands out to catch herself, instead curling in to a ball and landing hard on her side. No one noticed, for all eyes were on the empty black hole where Madara had escaped. Sasuke immediately followed, pausing only to lift Karin to her feet and cast Itachi a long, indescribable look before disappearing through the gap. His companions followed without a second's hesitation, leaving the original six infiltrators alone with Danzou again.

"Shit!" Naruto looked between the devious elder and the hole. "Taking out Madara is the most important thing, but we can't leave this bastard—"

"I will deal with him," Itachi declared.

Problem solved, Naruto nodded once and took off. Yamato followed, sticking close in case his demon suppression ability was needed. Kakashi looked to Sakura and Sai first.

"Find Tsunade," he told them, already turning to go. "She has to be in the underground facility. It's the only place that could hold her." They nodded, and he quickly went after his departed teammates.

As important as freeing Tsunade was, Sakura and Sai hesitated, caught up in the scene before them. Danzou and Itachi faced off again, and something was different than before. No one had thought to question why Itachi volunteered to stay behind when his brother and Madara had gone elsewhere. Sakura knew Madara was a more personal target for him, and the mixture of alarm and anger on his face worried her. Something was wrong, and she had a feeling it had to do with the strange, foreign chakra signature that was beginning to emanate from Danzou.

"I should have killed you that night as soon as you were no longer useful to me, before you started getting ideas of your own," Danzou said.

Itachi's eyes narrowed sharply. "What do you mean, useful _to you_…."

The old man chuckled darkly. "Do you still think it was the Sandaime's orders you followed that night?" he sneered, past all pretenses now. "You knew how opposed to it the old fool was. He never had the stomach to do what was necessary in a tough situation."

"You controlled him…how?"

"The same way _you_ force others to your will…." He reached up and removed the last of his false bandages, revealing the scarred right side of his face and a spinning red eye. "With the Sharingan."

Everyone stared in shock. The foreign chakra swirled freely now, and seemed to come not only from Danzou's eye, but from his arm as well. The chakra wasn't foreign to Itachi though, and his expression darkened malevolently. "Shisui's chakra…" he exclaimed mutedly. All of the pieces clicked into place. "It was _you_."

"Yes. I orchestrated the confrontation between you," he confirmed. "It was a risk, but I was confident you would be the victor. Dissent among the Uchiha reached the boiling point, and I gained an invaluable prize. As you know, Shishui's Sharingan had an extraordinary ability to possess the mind of his enemy."

And Danzou had used it to control the Sandaime into giving the order for the massacre. What else had he done with such a horrific ability over the years? Instantly Sakura and Sai were on guard, aware that he might try to use it on them, force them to attack Itachi or even each other so he could escape in the distraction.

Itachi was enraged, and his control over his emotions broke as the full extent of what had been done to him and his entire family became agonizingly clear. There were no words sufficient to express his fury. He simply attacked.

Danzou was fast and skilled, but not at the level of Itachi. Shisui may have been a match for his cousin, but the thief of his abilities was not. The fight was over almost before it began and Itachi had the old warmonger on his knees, held fast by the throat. Danzou didn't struggle; he would retain his dignity to the last. But Itachi didn't finish him. He no longer had any intention of doing this quickly.

Sakura and Sai still hesitated, for through the gaping hole they could hear the sounds of reinforcements approaching. Itachi heard it too, and without looking away from his captive he said, "They won't be a problem. My genjutsu still stands. Find the Hokage."

With fleeting nods of assent, they ran out through the hole and hurried toward ANBU HQ. It seemed Sasuke and his group hadn't bothered with stealth, and now Root agents were running toward the tower from every direction. Sakura felt a pang of fear for Itachi, but she trusted him when he said he could handle it. She needed to find Tsunade before her guards deduced what the intruders had come for and took matters into their own hands.

Fortunately they encountered no resistance as they ran, and there was minimal security at HQ this late at night. They shoved through the main doors and Sai engaged the first two surprised nins they encountered while Sakura grabbed the third and slammed him against the wall. The impact left a cracked indentation in the plaster and he struggled helplessly under her iron grip, his toes barely scraping the floor.

With her free hand she tore the mask from his face and fiercely held his gaze. "Choose," she growled. "Right now. Danzou or Konoha." She didn't want to kill anyone she didn't have to; they were still Konoha shinobi.

"The Hokage _is_ Konoha," he grunted.

She shoved him harder into the wall, causing more plaster to crumble and fall way. "_Wrong_. The _Hokage_ is imprisoned in a cell below, but not for long, and once she's back in office where she belongs every single one of you will be held accountable for their part in this silken-gloved coup. Danzou is finished, but you can still save yourself. Now _choose_."

The shinobi regarded her intently for a long moment, then glanced at his fellow Root, who were bound, gagged, and unconscious. Then he looked to Sai—who had once been one of them, but had chosen integrity and personal bonds over unquestioning duty. When he looked back to Sakura his decision was clear in his eyes. "Third sublevel. Cell thirteen," he supplied resignedly.

"Thank you," she told him, and then knocked him out cold. He slumped down the wall into a heap as she joined Sai and the two of them ran for the stairs.

The underground holding cells were where they encountered real opposition, though not as much as they would have in daylight hours. It was difficult getting through without lethal force, but they managed to incapacitate or knock out everyone who came at them. Some, like the man upstairs, simply gave way. Obviously when given the choice, not all Root members agreed with their leader's methods.

Sakura tore the keys from the last guard's belt as he slumped to the floor and quickly moved to the cell. She hadn't known what to expect, and had been afraid to even imagine what sort of state her shishou would be in. When they entered the cell they were both shocked at what they saw.

Tsunade wore only the nightgown and thin robe she'd been arrested in, her feet bare and chilblained, her long, graying blond hair hanging limply around her aged face. The chakra binding cuffs on her wrists had prevented her from recovering her strength, and she was frail and weak. She shivered slightly with cold.

Tsunade had heard the commotion through the thick, chakra-enhanced steel door and had shakily risen to her feet. When she saw who entered her cell she sagged with relief and stretched out her arms. "Sakura! I'm so glad you're alright! I was worried he would find you."

Sakura rushed forward and held her, so angry over her mentor's state she was near tears. "I'm fine, Shishou," she assured. "Itachi is fine, too."

"Naruto…?" she asked, meeting Sakura's gaze worriedly.

"Danzou tried, but Team Kakashi got him out in time. We've all come to put a stop to this outrage."

They sank to the floor together and Sakura immediately removed the chakra restraints, then began checking her for injuries. Thankfully she had nothing more than a few bruises and a moderate chill, and as Sakura's chakra flow ceased Tsunade's began to circulate again. Within a few minutes her usual, youthful appearance had returned.

"That's better," she sighed. She looked at them each in turn. "Thank you both. Now…take me to my office."

"Shishou, you should rest," Sakura protested. "Let us take you home."

"It's my godsdamned office and I'm going to take it back," the Hokage insisted tersely. The murderous expression on her face kept either of them from arguing further.

"It may be a mess, Hokage-sama," Sai said, as he and Sakura each took an arm and helped her stand. "Itachi is in there dealing with Danzou as we speak."

"Where is Kakashi? Is Yamato with you, too?" she wanted to know.

"We'll explain on the way."

The three of them made their way out of the cell, navigated the shinobi-strewn halls of the underground, and exited the building. On the way to the Hokage tower they filled her in about Danzou's confession, about his stolen Sharingan, about Sasuke's sudden arrival and the confrontation with Madara. In the distance, somewhere near the training grounds, they could sense the turbulent pressure of powerful chakras colliding in combat, and guessed that Sasuke and the others had caught up to the fleeing Akatsuki mastermind. The situation was so insane that Sakura could barely even process it herself at the moment, and Tsunade was equally overwhelmed by the concurrent events.

Itachi hadn't been exaggerating when he said he could take care of the reinforcements. Inside the tower, the number of collapsed and hallucinating Root agents had tripled. Sakura had never seen such a massive genjutsu. Getting up to the third floor was tedious and slow thanks to the few dozen bodies they had to climb over.

They finally entered the office, only to witness a gruesome scene unfolding in total silence. Itachi stood perfectly still at the center of the room, looking down at Danzou who was still on his knees, equally motionless. Itachi had him trapped in the Tsukiyomi, and was torturing him to death in the most agonizingly slow and painful way possible.

It was unclear how long they had been that way, but with the arrival of the Hokage, Itachi decided to release his captive. Danzou fell forward onto his hands, gasping and shuddering as whatever had happened in his mind now manifested in full physical effect. He heaved and clutched at his chest; he was an old man, and his body couldn't take it.

Expression far from impassive for once, Itachi pulled Danzou upright by his hair and forced him to meet his lethal gaze. His other hand rose to his enemy's sweating face, and he pressed his fingertips to the wide, fear-filled red eye. "This," he said with quiet malice, "does not belong to you."

Too spent and broken to scream, a ragged sputtering of agony tore from Danzou's throat as Itachi ripped the eye from its socket.

Danzou collapsed again, writhing as pain coursed through every nerve ending in his body. His single eye glared hatefully at Tsunade, but he was unable to speak. They watched in grim silence as his breathing became irregular and strained, growing shallower by the moment, until it finally stopped. Itachi dropped his macabre prize onto the floor near Danzou's head, and walked away.

Tsunade was the first to react. She simply walked forward, stepped over the lifeless body of her usurper, and sat down at her desk. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave Itachi a long, assessing look. He met her gaze levelly, and waited.

"Well," she finally said. "You and I certainly have a lot to talk about, don't we? And the first thing I want to say…is thank you."

Itachi was taken aback by the significance of such quick acceptance, and it was a moment before he replied, "I am only doing my duty…Hokage-sama."

Tsunade gave him a tired smile. "Indeed you are. Welcome back, Uchiha."

"It's still not finished," Sai reminded them. As if they could forget with the sporadic bursts of chaotic chakra floating on the air in small waves.

"Yes…I'd like a word or two with that brother of yours," Tsunade said, still looking at Itachi. "Bring him to me. Madara's head on a pole would be nice, too."

Sakura was torn about what to do next. She wanted to go to where the battle was taking place, but she didn't want to leave Tsunade alone. The Hokage noticed her dilemma and waved her off.

"I'll be fine," she assured. "My ANBU will probably be here any minute. Besides, I'm no longer too weak to defend myself."

Sakura smirked at the look on her face, and realized it was true. Gods help whoever tried to mess with her master right now.

They left the Godaime in her office and ran toward the source of clashing chakras, which even from this distance could be seen filling the sky with glowing bursts of eerie red light. The pressure in the air had woken most shinobi in the village by now, and several were already emerging from their houses to investigate what seemed like another attack on their home in less than a month. They had to avoid major traffic areas to make sure Itachi wouldn't be seen and mistakenly attacked.

As they entered the training grounds, they saw that the cause of the strange light was a fire the color of blood whose unnatural flames rose up in a perfect, cylindrical column. Strangely, there were only two figures engaged in combat on the field, but as they came within range they realized Team Kakashi and Sasuke's companions were trapped inside the wall of flame. They were unharmed, but completely prevented from joining the fight. Though Naruto and the three strangers looked like they were about to take their chances in order to get through.

They had good reason. Sasuke's wounds from the summit battle weren't fully healed and his powerful attacks had sapped most of his strength, and now Madara had him on the defensive. He didn't dare fight hand to hand now that Sasuke had figured out how to solidify him, but the onslaught of powerful jutsu he threw at his distant descendant was enough to drive Sasuke to the brink of collapse. The youngest Uchiha had slowed considerably, even staggered a few times, and because of the fire-trap there had been no one to come to his aid. Until now.

Both combatants stalled upon their arrival, though it was clearly only Itachi that concerned them. Madara apparently felt confident enough to turn his blind side to Sasuke in order to confront the elder brother, who was easily the bigger threat.

"Observe the fruit of your efforts, Itachi," he sneered, gesturing to the panting, exhausted Sasuke. "You tried so desperately to toughen up your precious little brother, and look how you failed. All the tricks he's learned, all the rage-driven focus and training, and this is what it has come to. He will die before your eyes, and then I will finish you."

"We both know your threats are empty, Madara," Itachi returned. "You are nothing but a shell, with no real power."

Madara laughed sinisterly. "We'll see."

He vanished. Less than a second later he reappeared behind Sasuke, and in the darkness and red glow of the fire, only a Sharingan could see the sharp glint of steel. Then in a flash so quick no one even saw him move, Itachi was between them. Sasuke pitched forward to the ground and Madara staggered back. Only the brothers could see the kunai embedded in his chest.

"Not enough," he hissed mockingly. As the blade slid downward and fell to the ground, he de-solidified momentarily. But the electrical currents from the Chidori running through his body made the technique impossible to maintain, and he quickly flickered to a safer distance.

"Get up, Sasuke," Itachi said harshly, never taking his eyes off Madara. "You didn't come this far to die."

With difficulty that he tried his damndest not to show, Sasuke dragged himself to his feet and stood exhausted, bewildered, and furious beside Itachi. Not since he was a child still living with his family had he ever imagined a moment like this: fighting side by side with the older brother he idolized. It was so unbelievably surreal…he wondered if he was still in a coma and all of this was yet another sick, nightmarish fever dream. Maybe it had something to do with the ringing in his ears and the disturbing amount of blood running down the side of his head.

Or maybe it was really happening, which he began to believe when a barrage of shuriken came at them and one nicked him on the shoulder, clearing his head and startling him back to reality. He and Itachi dodged the wave and then attacked in unison, as if they had been doing it for years.

Sakura had fleetingly wondered if a showdown between three Uchihas would take the form of a battle of genjutsu vs. genjutsu, where the opponents simply stood still and stared at each other until one of them dropped dead, similar to how Itachi had finished Danzou.

Instead it was like an unearthly storm had descended upon the training field. Spidery claws of lightning arced through the charged air accompanied by waves of black and red fire. A hail of summoned shuriken of all sizes whirled upon unnatural winds. Soon Madara was the one on the defensive.

Frustrated and anxious, there was little Sakura and Sai could do besides watch and evade the occasional stray projectile. The three fighting ninja moved so fast it was hard to follow what was happening, and it was too dangerous to get closer with the blasts of deadly jutsu they were throwing around. They moved closer to their teammates trapped within the fire wall, but were unable to help them; the crimson flames gave off no heat but the ground was charred beneath them, proving they were very real and deadly.

The fight had been over the moment the brothers joined together. They needed no genjutsu, no ultimate defense. By himself, each was formidable. Together, they were unstoppable. Only Madara's speed and evasion prolonged the inevitable. Madara knew this, and though he and Sasuke were both self-proclaimed avengers, they differed greatly in one way: to Madara, self-preservation was more important than vengeance. With the last of his strength he hurled a giant, triple-sphered fire jutsu across the field.

Everyone was forced to jump out of range of the inferno, and when the smoke cleared, Uchiha Madara was gone.

The wall of fire thinned, then faded away with a final hiss. Smoke drifted low over the gray training grounds, and through a delicate rain of grit and ash, the first light of predawn etched a thin lavender horizon imprisoned shinobi hurried to rejoin their comrades, but they were silent, all filled with the same curious expectancy as they watched the two on the field.

Furious at their enemy's second escape, but strangely a little relieved, the Uchiha brothers relaxed their fighting stances and then slowly, almost hesitantly, turned to regard each other.

Neither had ever expected or even hoped that this moment would someday come to pass. What did they say to this? Who was supposed to speak first? Did they argue over the multitude of angers between them and the bitterness of many painful years and who was more or less wrong…or did they just accept it all and be grateful that they were standing here alive and together with only truth between them after all this time.

It was Sasuke who decided. Very slowly, almost unsteadily, as if he feared Itachi wasn't real and would vanish upon contact, or maybe out of fear that doing so would somehow backlash against him, he stretched his scorched and bleeding arm out and just barely touched his fingertips to his brother's chest. Sasuke flinched upon finding him solid and then staggered a little, a combination of shock, exhaustion, and a hundred jumbled emotions coursing through him.

Itachi was experiencing a similar internal maelstrom, and his expression shifted into something surprised and pained and indescribable when Sasuke's fingers tightened in a desperate, trembling grip on his shirt as he grit his teeth and lowered his head, silently overcome. Itachi was too overwhelmed to react, unsure whether his brother was about to hug him or punch him in the face, only knowing that he wouldn't resist either.

After a long, uncertain moment, he reached out just as slowly and laid his hand on the top of his brother's unkempt head. Sasuke's shoulders heaved in a silent, tearless sob. There would be time later for all the things they had never been able to say, but for now, they needed no words.

Sakura cried for both of them, and smiled through her tears. Then her stomach lurched as Itachi faltered and brought a hand to his head. Afraid he'd been injured, she sprinted across the field and drew up to him, already reaching out. "Itachi…are you—"

"Fine," he assured tiredly. His eyes felt like someone had stuck needles through them, and as he pulled his hand away there was watery blood on his fingers. Sakura gasped softly and immediately raised pale, glowing fingertips to his face.

Sasuke looked on in helpless anxiety, terrified even the smallest thing might take his brother away again. As he watched, a very strange expression crossed his face, accompanied by equally strange thoughts. Sakura was a medic? Not really surprising, he supposed, and it seemed she was a damn good one by how fast and confidently she worked. But her ability wasn't what really struck him as odd. She and Itachi were standing very close, and it wasn't just because her arms were short and he was tall and there was no helping it. No…they were comfortable being that way. _Itachi_ was comfortable with such familiarity. Sasuke suddenly couldn't help but wonder if…but he wasn't quite sure he was seeing it right; he was on the verge of passing out, after all.

The others were approaching, but neither team got too close; one group was wary of Itachi, the other of Sasuke. Naruto looked like it had never been so hard for him to keep his mouth shut and stand still in his life.

When Sakura finished repairing the damage the extensive use of the Mangekyo had caused on Itachi's eyes she automatically turned to a bewildered Sasuke and reached for his concussed head. It would probably be a good thing if he passed out, but taking him into custody while he was unconscious would not help their efforts to get him back on their side. His three companions stared at her with varying levels of vaguely unfriendly apprehension. Especially the woman.

Tension rose noticeably as the ten shinobi converged, mostly due to the presence of the three unknown fighters. They were civil for the moment, but Sakura had a feeling if anyone tried to seize Sasuke, the weapons would start swinging. Though it rankled that he had abandoned Team Seven under the excuse they held him back and then went and gathered companions _anyway_, Sakura could grudgingly admit she was glad that at least he'd had people who seemed to care about him to watch his back all this time.

The tension between herself and Sasuke was equally intense, the small space between them filled with their history of uncomfortable exchanges, abandonment, betrayal, and the very unpleasant circumstances of their last meeting. Sakura carefully studied the shrinking gash at his hairline and avoided meeting his eyes, which would probably have been impossible anyway because Sasuke continued to watch Itachi as if he might disappear any second. Though he was still quite aware of her, and after a long stretch of weighted silence, he looked at her.

"You've been helping him…" he said, voice heavy with fatigue. "You healed him."

"Yes," she confirmed quietly. Finished at last, she steadily met his eyes, which were so like Itachi's, yet so very different.

The way he looked at her, it was almost like he was seeing her clearly for the first time. "…Thank you," he said solemnly.

A tight, fleeting smile crossed her lips. Did he even understand the irony of what he just said? It didn't look like it. In fact he'd already turned to walk away, but Sakura was more than glad to remind him of the way he'd left off with her all those years ago. "Sasuke?" she called out lightly. He turned back. Her smile widened.

And then her fist connected with his jaw.

Sasuke sailed backward a good ten feet and barreled into his comrades. They caught him and tensed for a fight, but stood down when no one else moved—including their leader, who sat sprawled in the dirt with a look on his face like…well, like he'd just been sent flying with a single punch from the girl he once thought had no potential as a ninja.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Sakura smirked in satisfaction. "Welcome home," she said sweetly, and walked away.

"Damn it! She got to him first!" Naruto complained loudly. Then he moved forward and stopped squarely before his shellshocked former teammate. The regarded each other silently for the longest time and everyone stilled around them again, even more unsure of what to expect from _this_ reunion.

This time it was Naruto who decided. Expression firm and unreadable, he simply offered his hand.

Another endlessly long moment of hesitation, and then Sasuke gripped his forearm and let himself be pulled to his feet. They each held the tight grasp on the other's arm until the moment was broken by the sounds of people approaching fast. ANBU had been sent to look for them.

Team Taka reached for their weapons. Kakashi and Yamato both signaled the advancing squads, and the masked nins fell back. Naruto met Sasuke's wary gaze.

"Looks like Tsunade is anxious to hear what's happened," he said casually. His deep blue eyes were intense, almost challenging. "…You coming?"

Sasuke looked from Naruto to Taka, then back to Naruto, and finally, his tired eyes lingered longest on Itachi. He exhaled long and slow, steeling himself, and then nodded once.

Naruto grinned hugely, and the large group slowly began to make their way off the field. The members of Taka were understandably confused and wary, and even hesitated a moment at the idea of willingly returning to face the Hokage, but they had followed their leader into worse and had no intention of letting him go alone.

Naruto made sure to stick as close to Sasuke as possible, though the tension of unresolved issues between them was awkward and nearly palpable. Sasuke, in turn, didn't let Itachi out of his sight. And so he was very aware of how his brother fell into step with Sakura, how she looked up at him affectionately, and how he smirked at her in a very knowing way.

"True to your word," he murmured amusedly.

Sakura laughed softly, suddenly feeling indescribably content, strangely complete. She grinned up at him, warming at the affection in his eyes, and walked happily by his side all the way back to the Hokage tower.

* * *

Next Chapter: _The Parting_


	14. The Parting

**Vespertine**

Chapter Fourteen: The Parting

* * *

_And so we have a problem you see, my dear_

'_Cause I can't move on, and I can't stay here_

* * *

The Hokage tower was abuzz with activity. Itachi had released the genjutsu upon leaving the building and now ANBU were everywhere, rounding up the last defiant Root agents and arresting them. Word had spread quickly through the roused village that Danzou was dead and Tsunade was recovered and reinstated, though only a select few knew how or why—and most importantly, by whom. Those who had known of the Godaime's false arrest probably thought she'd killed Danzou herself _and_ put the huge hole in the wall, which were not unreasonable assumptions, given the provocation and her legendary temper.

Tsunade was still seated at her desk, calmly sipping the tea someone had made her, though she'd gone to her quarters and dressed at some point. When the jumbled group of ninja entered the partially demolished office, her eyes narrowed as she caught sight of Sasuke but she didn't speak immediately. Sakura went to her and began another cursory checkup to make absolutely sure she was okay, and Tsunade didn't protest; she seemed to take some amount of pleasure in the obvious discomfort of the members of Taka as they waited for her to address them.

The tense silence grew as they all stood around, staring at each other, trying not to shiver from the chilly air breaching the hole in the wall. Naruto watched Sasuke, who watched Itachi, who in turn watched some nonexistent space between the Hokage's desktop and the floor. The silent presence of ANBU could be felt just outside the office, waiting for the slightest provocation to enter. When Sakura finally finished and stood again with her teammates, Tsunade folded her hands before her on the desk and fixed them all with her piercing amber stare.

Her words were equally sharp. "This is a complicated situation, but I'm in no mood tonight to handle it delicately. First, I think there's something you all should know." She picked up an open scroll from the desk's cluttered surface: it was the one Danzou had been reading when they burst into the room. "This is an official proclamation calling for Danzou to step down and for the leadership of Hidden Leaf to return to me, or in the event of my continued incapacitation, Hatake Kakashi. It bears the seals of the four other Kages, as well as the new joint seal of the alliance."

"So Danzou knew it was over," Naruto deduced. "That must be why he didn't put up much of a fight."

"He probably had an escape plan," said Sai, who was no longer sealed from talking about his former commander, "but the dual confrontation left him with no way out."

"Whatever the case," the Hokage continued, "you have my gratitude for disposing of him. And for coming to my aid."

The thanks were directed at Team Kakashi and Itachi, as Taka had a much less noble purpose for infiltrating Konoha. Though Tsunade could make a logical guess, she wanted to hear it from the source, and turned her hard stare on Sasuke. "Why did you come to this village tonight?"

"To kill Danzou, and the elders Homura and Koharu," he answered frankly, too tired and apathetic to his fate to tread softly.

"For what reason?"

"For their involvement in the Uchiha massacre."

"And from whom did you receive your information? Madara?" He didn't reply, but it wasn't needed. Her eyes narrowed further. "You believed the words of such a person to be credible? You didn't consider that he might be manipulating you?"

"I was certain of it, actually, but there was enough truth in what he told me to form my own conclusion."

"How do you know?"

"Because of my own memories," he said more quietly, his eyes finding Itachi's. "Memories I believe I…repressed, until confronted by the truth."

"How convenient," she remarked tersely. "But this is only one example of your ignorant recklessness. You have a clear pattern of drawing your own conclusions based on incomplete evidence and unreliable testimony, and taking action on your own without regard for the larger consequences to this village, the people around you, and even the world. You abandoned Konoha to join Orochimaru. Then you joined with Madara and were the cause of _two_ international incidents: capturing the hachibi on behalf of Akatsuki, and attacking the five Kages themselves at the summit in Iron. You killed several of Iron's soldiers, and have thus become an enemy of yet another powerful nation."

She paused a moment to let the harsh reality sink in, and then spoke directly. "I cannot ignore the ways your choices have negatively affected this village. Even if I could, the other villages will not tolerate it, now that your foolishness has involved them as well. There is an unprecedented alliance between the greater shinobi nations, and _nothing_ can be allowed to endanger that. In short, Uchiha Sasuke…you have dug yourself a hole so deep that nothing may be able to pull you out. Even your most ardent defenders now agree that you cannot escape the consequences of your actions."

Sasuke's eyes reflexively went to Naruto, who stared back with a pained but resolute expression. Naruto had been his best friend…his only friend, really. His support and respect had always been dependable facts, mostly ignored but secretly needed. The realization that he had lost them was more devastating than he could have ever imagined. If even Naruto had stopped believing in him….

"I am not trying to escape them," he replied, quiet and weary. Everything he thought he knew had been turned upside down again and again. He had made so many poor choices that he'd truly believed were necessary, and in the end he failed in everything he set out to accomplish. The life he gave up, the people he abandoned…it had all been for nothing. He no longer cared what happened to him. He'd known his chosen path would lead to ruin, but believing the damage done and seeing no way out, he continued anyway. Now he was beginning to understand that what had started out as a justified course of action had evolved into something irrational and deeply selfish.

"Sasuke—" Naruto started.

Tsunade raised a hand for him to be silent, and for once, he listened. But inside, he raged with torn emotions. None of this was happening the way it was supposed to, and it wasn't even the fact that Naruto hadn't been the driving force of Sasuke's surrender. It was that now that they were here, he didn't know what to do. He had no profound, inspiring speeches to make his wayward best friend see the truth. He didn't even know if he could still call him his best friend…he had just gone too far. Sasuke's mission was noble at its foundation, and he had a right to seek retribution. Even if it wasn't Itachi in the end, someone had to be held accountable. But Sasuke had strayed from his path and committed crimes that had nothing to do with his revenge. He had hurt innocents, and killed people who weren't involved. The Sasuke he knew wouldn't have done that. Naruto didn't know him anymore.

"I honestly don't know what to do with you," Tsunade continued, sighing irritably. "If you didn't have something this village needs very badly I would have no problem throwing you to the wolves. The fact that you possess the Sharingan is really the only card I can play in your favor, _if_ I decide to do so. I have a lot to consider before deciding what measures to take."

Sasuke silently accepted this, ignoring the incredulous stares of his comrades. He had cast aside hope long ago and didn't dare to reclaim it now by hoping he would be pardoned; to have a chance to make amends to those he had wronged, and to truly know his brother again.

"Yamato, round up an interrogation squad. I need statements from everyone first." The ANBU captain nodded and disappeared through the floor. Tsunade knew that if she _were_ to offer Sasuke any sort of deal, he probably wouldn't take it until he knew what would happen to his brother. And so she turned to the older Uchiha.

"Itachi…no one can ask for more than you've already given, but I would like you to stay in Konoha. I would also greatly appreciate your return to service, but I won't demand it." She studied him closely. "You have something worth staying for now, yes?"

Sakura blushed, wondering when exactly her master had figured it out, or if she'd known all along. She couldn't help a tiny smile.

Itachi's reaction to the implication was far less noticeable, though it took him a moment to reply. "I would like that," he said. "But first I must finish things with Madara." He paused, and then added, "I believe you asked for his head on a pole."

Tsunade smirked. "I certainly did." She thought over the idea for a moment. "Indeed, I think providing proof of his death will be the perfect way to suppress the commotion over your return."

"One more thing, Hokage-sama," he continued carefully. "I request that Sasuke be allowed to come with me. He has as much right to see this through as I do."

Everyone was surprised, but none more than Sasuke. It was asking a lot, to allow the missing-nin every nation wanted a piece of to roam free for an indeterminate period of time. But it had been proven time and again that if anyone could control Uchiha Sasuke, it was Itachi.

"Can you guarantee his return?"

With only a fleeting glance at his younger brother, Itachi replied, "Yes."

"Then I will consider it, and give you an answer once I decide what to do with him. For now, I want you to go to Morino Ibiki and give a full report on everything you've been up to for the past ten years. I'm going to need all the favorable evidence you can provide in order to convince the council to sanction your pardon. Kakashi and Sai will escort you. Make sure you're not seen by the general public."

They turned to leave, and Sakura's eyes followed them on the way out. She was thrilled that he would receive a pardon, as she had hoped for so long. But inside she was sad that he would be leaving for some time, and worried because it would be incredibly dangerous.

The sun was in full ascent now, bringing a cool winter morning to Konoha. Tsunade was content to ignore them all in favor of sipping her tea and watching the light as it crept across the frost-rimed rooftops, causing steam to rise. The awkward tension rose once again as Naruto and Sakura stared uncertainly at Sasuke and his companions. The minutes ticked by. No one knew what to say to anyone. Sasuke continued to stare at the floor and seemed to have forgotten anyone was there. Thankfully it wasn't long before the ANBU interrogators arrived to take statements from Sasuke and the three foreigners, and Naruto and Sakura were promptly kicked out of the room.

They went into the unlit antechamber, where Shizune's empty desk stood in a shadowy corner, cluttered with stacks of paperwork as if she would return any minute to pick up the Hokage's slack as she always had. But the gathering dust served as a reminder that she never would. With a swell of renewed sorrow, Sakura crossed the room and began clearing the desk to spare her master the pain of seeing it. She would do the paperwork herself.

Naruto didn't bother trying to listen at the door; he knew from experience that the Hokage's office was soundproof. He was uncommonly somber, and grew even more so when he saw what she was doing. He took a seat on the sofa by the window, and expressed what he'd only just held back these past few hours.

"This _really_ isn't how I imagined things would go," he sighed.

"No," she agreed, "but for my part I'm glad you didn't end up half killing each other." Though she had a feeling it was coming. Those two could never sort out anything with words, and they had a _lot_ to say.

He made a noncommittal sound, all but confirming her theory. "What do you think will happen? Baa-chan doesn't seem to be in a very lenient mood right now."

"Would you be, if you went through what she just did?" She set the last of the files in a box to take home and began wiping the dusty surface with her glove, but didn't think she could handle going through the drawers right now. "I don't know," she sighed. "But he's not going to get off clean, Naruto. And you know he shouldn't."

Naruto's only reply was brooding silence. He studied her cautiously for a long moment, then softly asked, "Do you hate him?"

"No," she said, "but I don't feel the same bond with him as you. We were teammates and he treated me like dirt. Not because he didn't return my feelings, but because he thought I was worthless. You know how that affected me for a long time. I care about him, but I can't be his friend until he learns to respect me."

"I think he'll start to now, after you knocked him on his ass."

Sakura smiled. Naruto managed a half-grin, but soon returned to brooding. Realizing he must feel pretty disappointed and useless at the moment, she stopped what she was doing, put her dirty gloves in her pocket and went to sit next to him.

"I know you wanted to convince him on your own," she said gently. "But this really isn't about personal victory. You're going to be a leader soon, Naruto, and you have to learn to look at the bigger picture. Sasuke is back and it looks like he's not going to resist. For now, at least."

"I know," he muttered. "It's just hard to imagine something so often for years and then have it turn out completely different. If Itachi wasn't here…"

"Then you may have gotten through to him yourself. Or maybe not. Or maybe Sasuke would have been killed by Madara, or Danzou, or any other number of things could have happened. If Itachi wasn't alive, I wouldn't have been with him and Kakashi couldn't have teleported to my location and you would _all_ be dead. And so would I because I would have gone down protecting Tsunade-sama. There's no point in obsessing over what-ifs."

His expression softened from gloomy to thoughtful. "Think she'll agree to let Sasuke go after Madara?"

"I hope so." Catching his surprised look, she explained. "I think it will be good for both of them. Maybe Sasuke's not ready to be back in Konoha just like that. He probably feels pretty lost and confused right now, and a lot of that has to do with Itachi so I think he's the right one to help him get through it. And I think it will help Itachi, too."

He absorbed her words, studying her. "Aren't you upset?" he wanted to know. "He's gonna be leaving you."

Sakura's expression fell slightly. "Of course I'm a little sad. But it's not forever."

Naruto didn't seem to have anything else to say, and so they sat in silence. Sakura leaned her head against his shoulder, and enough time passed that she was on the edge of sleep when the door opened.

It wasn't what they expected. Two ANBU investigators had come, and wanted to corroborate their statements about last night with the report Kakashi had given. So they tediously repeated everything that happened, and one of the agents also gave Sakura a blank report log to fill out regarding her classified mission to rehabilitate Itachi. Then they left as abruptly as they came.

Not long after that, they were called back into the Hokage's office. Kakashi and Sai arrived a moment later. Only Itachi was still absent.

Fortunately, Tsunade was too tired to continue toying with their anxiety. "Here's what I've decided," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Sasuke, I will allow you to go with Itachi. As far as anyone is concerned, you were never here last night. You will go, and return with proof of Uchiha Madara's death. Killing him will help to ease the animosity you've brought upon yourself, and it can be made to seem as if you were working for that end all along, perhaps even on Konoha's orders. You will be under Itachi's authority at all times. He will be reporting to me regularly, so if you decide to do something irrational it will be very quickly known." Her eyes narrowed. "And there will be no leniency."

There was more to it than that, but she wasn't going to tell him something that might affect his willingness to return. Sasuke said nothing in reply, though he seemed to vacillate between surprise at his chance for redemption, and aversion to being under such strict authority.

Tsunade noticed, and exhaled irritably. "If that's not good enough for you there's a maximum security cell that's just recently been vacated, and I can tell you with some authority that it's not a very comfortable one."

"I will return with Itachi once Madara is dead," he agreed. "And then?"

"That depends on what happens between now and then." She could see he didn't like her vague answer, but she wasn't about to placate someone who'd caused so much trouble and pain to people she loved. "It's the only option that doesn't end with a swift execution, so I suggest you take it."

A long, weighted silence passed before he finally said, "When do we leave?"

"That's for you and Itachi to determine. The sooner the better."

She turned her attention to the anxious members of Taka. "As for you three… your individual circumstances are complicated to say the least, but I can't ignore the fact that you were subordinates of Orochimaru. I can't just let you freely leave or wander about this village. However, you strays have nowhere to go, no one who needs you, and no future. You each possess assets that I believe would benefit Konoha, and though you may not like the idea of probation, if you agree to the terms you will have a home." She looked to the girl. "You in particular, Karin."

"What's so special about her?" Naruto asked bluntly.

Karin paled, looking like she wanted to disappear through the floor. Everyone focused on her with intense curiosity, including Sasuke.

"You have some untrained skill with healing chakra, do you not?" Tsunade prompted.

Visible relief washed over her face. "Yes," she answered quickly.

"Konoha needs more medics," the Hokage said simply.

"Well, it's a nice offer," Suigetsu said dryly, "but we go where Sasuke goes."

"No," Sasuke said with quiet firmness. "Not this time. This is something I must do—" he curbed the automatic response of 'alone,' and was a little bewildered to finish with "—with my brother."

While the other two were still standing there shocked, Karin quickly pulled herself together and made her own decision. "I'll stay."

Tsunade nodded an acknowledgement to her, and some kind of silent understanding passed between them, piquing Sakura's immediate interest. She would have to find out what that was about as soon as possible.

"I will stay as well," said Juugo, speaking for the first time so far.

Put on the spot, Suigetsu gave an affected shrug and muttered, "Guess I'll stick around for a while too…see what it's like around here."

The Hokage nodded, satisfied. "It's settled then. Tomorrow morning you will begin the integration process. For now, go and rest. Secure lodgings have been arranged, and ANBU will escort you at all times." She looked to Sasuke again. "Be there in one hour." She sighed heavily, and barely stifled a yawn. "Now get out, all of you."

At first the excessive time limit confused Sakura, but one glance at Naruto's smirking face made if perfectly clear that without being asked, the Hokage had granted him a very important favor.

For security reasons the four members of Taka were to be quartered in separate locations, and a pair of ANBU came to take each of them to their rooms. They were all a little overwhelmed by what was happening, and cast uncertain glances at their team leader as they were ushered out. But Sasuke was too preoccupied with his own internal turmoil to give them the assurances they sought.

Rather than wait for them all to go, Tsunade simply decided to leave herself, heading straight for her quarters and some well deserved rest. Team Seven was finally alone together—with the exception of the ANBU squad who waited just outside the room.

Sasuke took a few steps in Sakura's general direction and it seemed like he intended to pass her, but then he stopped, and she could tell there was something he wanted to say. After a long, awkward moment in which she wondered if he might give up and keep walking, he finally, hesitantly asked, "Are you and Itachi…together?"

"Yes," she answered easily. She watched the thoughts cascade over his expression as he processed the information, and was surprised to see a brief flicker of suspicion. He questioned her motives for being with Itachi. Naruto's first impression had been that she was settling for the other brother. Did Sasuke think that too? If so, it needed to be clarified immediately. "I hope you didn't think I would wait for you, or that I would still be pining for you after all this time," she said bluntly.

"No…" he said slowly, again staring at her as if trying to figure her out. "You're…." Sakura simply raised a brow, waiting for an explanation. His hand unconsciously rose to rub his aching jaw. "Different."

A small smile curved her lips. From him, she took that as a compliment.

"I'm glad," he added, but it took a moment for him to keep going. When it came to expressing feelings, he was as predictably awkward as his brother. Maybe more so.

Sakura suspected what he was getting at, but she was going to make him say it. "Glad?"

He frowned, and his next words came out as a quiet mutter. "That you…that he has someone to…make him happy."

Her smile widened, and it felt as if some of the weight between them had lifted. "Are you with that girl?" she asked in return.

Sasuke was taken aback, like he didn't know what she was talking about. Then it occurred to him and his expression turned pensive. "Not really," he said, then frowned slightly and amended himself. "Maybe. I don't know." He seemed to come to terms with something, and gave a nearly imperceptible sigh. "We've been through a lot together," he said quietly. "Karin…she understands me."

"Good," she said softly, and meant it. In all their time as teammates, no matter how deep her feelings had been, no matter how hard she tried, she had never truly been able to understand him. It was why they had never really been able to connect, even as friends. She was genuinely glad he'd found someone who could.

Naruto had grown tired of standing around waiting for what he'd already waited so long to do. He came over and stopped in front of Sasuke. There was appraisal and challenge in both of their eyes.

"Are you ready?" Naruto asked boldly.

That old familiar, cocky smirk appeared on Sasuke's face. "Are _you_?"

Both of them were nearly giddy with testosterone and aggressive anticipation as they turned to leave. Sakura rolled her eyes affectionately and followed after them, pausing beside Kakashi.

"Don't you want to watch?" she asked him expectantly.

He had seen this coming as well, no doubt. She didn't know exactly how he felt about Sasuke's return, but he seemed pleased that it was over, at least. "I suppose someone needs to make sure they don't kill each other," he sighed.

"Who better than Sensei?" she returned playfully. With a mild eye-crinkle, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and fell into step beside her. She looked back over her shoulder at their other teammate. "Come on, Sai."

The artist had been keeping to himself, not wanting to intrude on their reunion. But now he smiled, happy to be included, and caught up with them as they reached the door.

The long-in-coming battle at Team Seven's old training grounds was every bit as outrageously extreme as Sakura had expected it would be. Naruto and Sasuke both seemed intent on displaying the entire repertoire of jutsu, speed, and skills they had acquired while apart, and they nearly destroyed the grounds. But it was clear that they weren't trying to kill each other, and refrained from using techniques that were unavoidably lethal—which, to their probable frustration, were the ones that were most impressive. Each man had been an enormous pain in the other's ass for the last five years, and more than the need to show off how strong they'd become, they simply wanted to beat the hell out of each other.

Aside from wanting to see the fight of a lifetime between her two estranged teammates, Sakura had intended to be present once they finally got it out of their systems and needed a healer—and intended to hit them both for insisting on such a stupid way to settle their differences. However, when that moment came and the fight trickled to a halt—in a draw—the exhausted, battered brothers in all but blood simply fell beside each other, slumped side by side on the broken, smoking ground. Then they started to talk.

Sakura couldn't hear their hesitant, muted words, but she didn't try. This was between them. Their bond was something she could never touch, and she was finally okay with that. She smiled at them, then at Kakashi and Sai—the former wearing the same look of satisfaction and understanding as she, the latter just looking confused by the relationship complexities he was witnessing.

Kakashi pulled out his book and told her he would stay behind with the ANBU and make sure Sasuke arrived at his quarters on time, and that he would send for her if they truly needed medical attention. Sakura and Sai left, walking together until their paths deviated. Sakura then went back to the Hokage tower, picked up the box of backlogged paperwork on Shizune's desk, and went to her rooms.

* * *

Since her parents' house had been destroyed in the attack and what remained of her belongings were in a storage unit, she had been given one of the rarely used ambassador's lodgings in the tower until the blueprints could be accessed from the city planner's office and her home rebuilt. The suite was far more opulent than anything she was used to, especially after living in a rural stone cabin for the past several months. The elegance was wasted on her; at the moment she only cared about the bathtub and the bed.

After a long, steamy soak in a tub that could have accommodated three she collapsed onto the bed that could have fit five, intending to nap. But her mind kept flashing over the night's events, and was particularly fixated on what might be happening now with Itachi. Eventually giving up on sleep, she rose and tried to drown her anxiety in her mission report and the box of paperwork she'd brought. It worked for most of the day, until her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten anything in well over twenty-four hours. She took a walk to pick up some takeout and let the cool evening air clear her head and wake her up. When she returned she slipped into the light robe the suite provided and went back to filling out documents with one hand while eating with the other. Not long after, there was a quiet knock at the door.

"Yes?" she acknowledged absentmindedly. There were only a few documents left and she wanted to finish.

The door opened, and Itachi came in.

Paperwork immediately forgotten, she set down her pen and smiled. "Hi," she greeted warmly. "Did it go well?"

Itachi nodded, and pulled a chair up next to hers at the small table. "I was with ANBU until midday, and then I met with the Hokage for a final briefing on the mission. Since then I've been with Sasuke."

Sakura watched him closely. He'd cleaned up and changed clothes, and he looked tired, but at ease. "How did that go?"

"It was…a start," he said quietly.

She nodded understandingly. Unlike with Naruto, the many problems between them couldn't be resolved with a brawl. They'd already been down that road and it only left things more complicated. It was going to take a lot of time.

"Are you hungry?" she asked him.

He nodded faintly and reached for a carton. Making a barely discernable face at what he found in the first one, he selected another and began to eat. "What are you working on?" he asked after a while, glancing at the neat stack of files.

"The report for my mission and some unfinished paperwork Shizune was working on. I didn't want Tsunade-sama to have to deal with it. It's hard enough for her already," she muttered. She ran her hands through her hair and gave a tired smile. "I'm glad to be home, but part of me wishes it was still just the two of us in that cabin."

Itachi gazed at her solemnly and reached out to softly brush a strand of hair from her face. She leaned into his touch, closing her eyes. Even his smallest gesture was comforting. She would miss him so much. "When are you leaving?" she half-whispered.

"Dawn," he answered almost as quietly.

That startled her. Less than twelve hours…she'd thought it would be a day or two at least before they were ready to set out. Sakura couldn't reply, just slipped from her seat and onto his lap, burying her face in his neck as his arms came around her. They held each other silently for long moments.

"Are you upset with me?" he murmured into her hair.

Surprised, she pulled back to see his face. "What? Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"I didn't tell you what I intended to do."

"It's not like you planned for this to happen. I wouldn't have tried to stop you anyway," she assured. "I know you both need this. And maybe while you're gone…you and he can try to salvage something of your former relationship, like it was before all the bad things happened. You can start over."

How many second chances did a man get in his life, and how many found such an amazing and beautiful woman as he had, who understood him perfectly? It was foolish to walk away from her, even temporarily, and risk letting her slip away. But he would never be able to give her what she deserved if he didn't do this. He smoothed one hand up her back and threaded his fingers in her hair. "Sakura…I may be gone for a long time. I won't ask you to wait for me."

"But I will," she answered softly. Her hands rose to his face. "As long as it takes. Just promise me you'll come back."

"Only death will keep me from returning to you," he vowed. He drew her closer and a warmth spread through his chest, a feeling he was just coming to understand. He wanted to tell her what was in his heart; that she had shown him how to hope again, that she had given him a reason to live. He owed her everything. He wanted to tell her, but he couldn't find the words.

Sakura fought hard not to cry, but when his lips found hers with the same near desperate intensity as their first kiss, a single tear slipped from the corner of her eye. She clung to him and returned his kisses passionately, conveying the depth of her feelings without words. They had so little time left. She didn't want to waste a moment.

Rising slowly from his lap, she tugged the front of his shirt, coaxing him up with her. He gathered her to him again, stooping slightly from their height differences to press his face into her neck, and for a long moment he was content to stay there, breathing her in. Then his mouth began moving over her skin, and Sakura's desire rose as a shiver ran down her spine. She tilted her head, encouraging him to continue, and took her time removing his shirt, smoothing her hands over the firm planes of his torso, across his shoulders. His hands found the belt of her robe and slowly untied the knot, then slipped inside and caressed the bare curves of her waist and hips. The garment slipped from her shoulders as she reached for his belt, and he assisted in its removal as she unfastened the buttons of his pants.

Sakura pressed herself against him, delighting in the contact of their bare skin, and felt his breath catch as she placed sensual kisses to the underside of his jaw. He responded in kind, gathering her hair up in a fist and angling her head to nibble the back of her neck, turning her knees to water and bringing a soft moan to her lips. When his mouth found hers again, she all but melted against him. They finished stripping each other with deliberate slowness, savoring every heated touch, every intoxicating kiss. She drew him toward the oversized bed and they sank together onto the downy surface.

Itachi wanted her badly but refused to rush. He ran his hands over every inch of her soft skin, memorizing and mapping every beautiful curve and dip. His mouth followed his hands, his lips and tongue leaving burning trails across her body, giving special attention to her most sensitive areas; her throat, her breasts, the rarely touched skin of her inner thighs. Sakura nearly trembled with lust, and when his mouth finally settled between her legs it was only moments before she fell over the edge, writhing against the sheets as a cry of ecstasy tore from her throat. The ease of her climax surprised him, and as he rose and settled his weight over her a pleased and faintly smug smirk curled his lips.

That sexy expression infuriated her and renewed her desire at the same time. With a light display of unnatural strength Sakura flipped their positions, pushing him onto his back and straddling his hips. She leaned forward and kissed him deeply, grinding against him until a soft groan filled his throat. He grasped her hips tightly, pressing her downward to further the contact. With their bodies perfectly aligned and both so highly aroused, he slid into her effortlessly. Another groan escaped him as his dark eyes flashed red with adrenaline, and a flood of heat shot through her to know the effect she had on this normally stoic man. She moved in a slow rhythm, prolonging every sensation, relishing how amazing it felt to be joined with him like this. Soon she was on the brink again.

Itachi watched her with his bloodline limit, perfectly capturing every erotic movement of her lithe body over his, every flicker of pleasure across her face. Her second orgasm crashed over her like a wave and she cried out, tightening around him so exquisitely that he nearly went with her. Sapped of strength, she collapsed forward against him. He wrapped his arms around her and rolled her beneath him again and continued their lovemaking with smooth, deep thrusts.

Heat rose within her again, but not enough to bring her a third time. Instead she focused on his body moving with hers, his firm muscles rippling beneath her hands as the tension built within him. She locked her legs around his hips and urged him to go harder and faster. He complied eagerly, and moments later, with a powerful shudder and a broken groan against her skin, he found his release.

Itachi relaxed against her, laying his head on her chest. Sakura held him, weaving her fingers through his long, slightly tangled hair. As the ecstasy faded, sadness began to well within her again, for in only a few short hours he would be leaving and she didn't know when he would return. But she refused to let it overcome her, and smiled lovingly as he lifted himself to kiss her.

They held each other for a long while and talked a little, until passion flared between them again and they continued to make love late into the night. Sakura tried her hardest to remain awake, cursing herself for not taking that nap. She didn't want to lose any time with him, but the last two days had taken their toll on her and her body refused her demands. She drifted to sleep in his arms.

Itachi did not sleep, though he slipped into a light meditative doze for an hour or two, always keeping Sakura wrapped securely in his embrace. He memorized the way she felt against him, all warmth and softness and trust.

When the first violet light of predawn came through the window, he didn't wake her. He wanted to remember her like this; her beautiful face soft and serene in sleep, not tightened by worry and sadness. With feather lightness he touched her bare skin, memorizing every detail as he'd been doing all night. Her hair, which fascinated him to the point of obsession, was splayed around her shoulders and the pillow, longer than it had been when they first met, and his fingertips lingered in the silken pink strands.

With an inaudible sigh, Itachi carefully eased himself from the entanglement of their limbs and rose from the bed. His only possessions were his clothes and weapons and the book she'd given him; they were already in his pack so he dressed silently and returned to the bed, gazing down at the woman who had changed his life.

He had meant it when he said nothing but death would stop him from returning to the happiness he had found with her. Leaning down, he placed the softest of kisses on her sleeping lips and another on her brow, then retrieved his gear and slipped from the room.

* * *

Sakura woke to the sound of the door clicking shut, so faint that her waking was due more to instinct than anything. She knew immediately that Itachi was gone, though the place where he'd lain was still slightly warm. At first she wondered sadly why he hadn't woken her, but she knew him well enough to understand his reasons. It was easier on both of them this way. If she _had_ said goodbye to him face to face, she knew, she wouldn't have been able to keep from crying.

But that didn't mean she was content to let go just like that. She quickly jumped out of bed, threw on a sweatshirt and some pants, and went out the door. He had a few minutes' head start, so she took to the rooftops and headed straight for the main gates. Sakura didn't want to intercept him, she just wanted…to see him off. Even if he didn't know she was there.

Upon reaching the block of rooftops closest to the gates but far enough to avoid being seen, it surprised her greatly to find she wasn't the only one who had the same idea. A tall girl somewhere around her age with fiery red hair stood there—Sasuke's comrade, and apparently, his 'maybe' girlfriend. They were close enough at least that she had come out into the freezing cold before dawn to see him off, just as Sakura had for Itachi. Though Sakura had to wonder how she'd managed to convince her ANBU guards—who lurked nearby—to let her out. Then again, she wasn't exactly a prisoner.

Their eyes met and the foreign girl was immediately wary, but Sakura gave a fleeting smile to show she wasn't there to mess with her. "Karin, right?" she said, breath puffing before her face. "I'm Sakura."

"I know," Karin said a little gruffly. "I've heard about you."

"From Sasuke?"

"And other people. You're kind of famous," she said dryly.

That answer surprised her, but it was pretty clear the other girl didn't want to talk so she didn't press for an explanation. Karin's eyes returned to the courtyard just inside the gates, and Sakura followed her gaze just in time to see the small dark figures of Itachi and Sasuke appear and begin talking mutedly.

Sakura and Karin silently watched the men they were letting go, two relative strangers united by the same feelings. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Karin sigh sadly and press one hand slowly against her abdomen.

Her head snapped in the other girl's direction, eyes widening. Sakura didn't care if it was rude; she reached out and touched her shoulder, sending a lightning fast pulse of chakra through her. Her mouth fell open at the confirmation.

Karin was well aware of what she'd done and jerked away from her with a fierce glare, barely managing to keep her voice down. "Hey! What the hell!"

"Gods…" Sakura murmured. Now she understood why the Hokage was so keen about Karin staying in Konoha, and why she agreed so readily. "Does he know?"

Karin paled and hugged herself, turning her ruby eyes back to the distant figures in the courtyard. "…No," she replied faintly.

Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing, and was filled with quiet outrage. "Karin…how could you keep this from him?" Sasuke had been planning to have children for as long as she'd known him, but that didn't include being an unaware, absentee father. "He's going to be furious," she warned.

"You think I didn't want to tell him?" she shot back defensively. "I've _tried_. But he's…well, you know him. He's got tunnel vision when it comes to the whole avenger thing. And if I told him now…he wouldn't go. And…" her voice wavered, her lips trembling, "he _needs_ this if he's ever going to be whole again, you know? This baby is going to need a good father, someone who will be there in mind, body, and spirit. If we have any chance at a future…then he needs to get closure with the past."

She shot Sakura a knowing look. "Isn't that why you're here right now, too? It's the same for your man, isn't it?" A single tear slipped down her face, and she lifted her glasses to irritably wipe it away. "Stupid hormones," she muttered.

Sakura didn't know what to say. Karin was probably right, and she agreed that both brothers definitely needed this, though she couldn't help but worry about what the consequences may be in the future. Still, she felt bad for Karin, who had to make such a difficult decision. The selfish thing would have been to keep Sasuke by her side out of obligation. Sakura respected her courage, and thought she would like to get to know her better.

"You're right," she said finally, and gave her a small smile. "If you need help with anything, let me know okay?"

Karin sniffed, though from cold or crying it was hard to tell, and nodded. "Thanks."

They went back to watching Itachi and Sasuke in silence, and it was clear the brothers were about to leave. They turned and walked through the gates, growing smaller and more difficult to see in the early morning mist.

Sakura wouldn't cry. She would miss Itachi terribly and a large piece of her heart was going with him, but it wasn't forever. She would see him again. He would come back to her.

The figures vanished into the fog. Sakura smiled softly to herself, and with the promises they had made to each other locked in her heart, she turned and made her way home.

* * *

Next Chapter: _The Future_


	15. The Future

**Vespertine**

Chapter Fifteen: The Future

* * *

_I held you tight to me_

_But you slipped away_

_You promised to return to me_

_And I believed, I believed_

* * *

Like all of Fire country, summers in Konoha were always hot and predominantly humid. The heat pressed down upon the earth like a physical weight, the relentless sun scorching the pavement and clay tiled rooftops. Sometimes, out of nowhere, a brief, intense storm would bring reprieve and wash the clammy thickness from the air, leaving behind the metallic tinge of ozone and damp, sun-baked earth.

Today was one of those days, and Sakura stared vacantly out the rain-spattered window, drumming the tip of her pen in an inattentive rhythm against the countertop. She wished there were a way to open it and feel the cool breeze against her face—much welcome after the record temperatures of yesterday—but the laboratory windows in the hospital's research and development sector were all sealed for safety reasons.

The test results would take four hours to reveal. Sakura glanced at the wall clock again—as of now, there was still three hours and twenty-four minutes to go. Her research was very important and she enjoyed what she was doing, but she wished certain parts of the scientific process weren't so tediously boring.

In recent weeks there had been several small incidents along the southwestern border involving shinobi from Swamp country. They were coating their weapons with a strange poison and a few Konoha nin had died. Based on the toxicology reports from the autopsies, Sakura and a team of assistants had been studying the poison all week, and today they were conducting the first trial for an antidote. Once that was successful, the next step was to figure out how to replicate the toxin for Leaf's own uses.

There had been a long lull of peace after Naruto became Hokage, but now some of the smaller villages seemed to think that having an eighteen year-old leader made Hidden Leaf weak, and they were testing.

Tsunade had retired only a few months after they rescued her and put an end to Danzou's short-lived reign of tyranny. The ordeals she'd undergone in those few months, most especially the attack on Konoha, had left her exhausted in more than a physical way. The last of the Sannin was still involved in village affairs as a mentor for Naruto and for her medical expertise.

Kakashi had evaded the responsibility of Kageship himself and instead became the chief advisor, acting as a sounding board for Naruto, who had an enormous amount of expectation riding on him as Konoha's savior. Even the most confident leaders could be unsure at times. Naruto had been a little overwhelmed by the administrative aspects of leading a nation at first, but he was doing an excellent job overall. The people loved him as much, if not more than they had loved his father. Sai was the Hokage's eyes and ears in ANBU, ensuring there was no further Root activity or other splinter factions among Konoha's forces. And Sakura…the very day she made jounin she was promoted to Chief Medic, and also became the unofficial right hand of the Hokage. When things needed to get done, she had the reputation and the forceful personality to make it happen.

But now Sakura caught herself nodding off; the low drone of the lab machinery was putting her to sleep. With a yawn and stretch, she stood and meandered down the hall to the break room for a cup of the hospital's notoriously strong and always slightly burnt coffee. When she returned with the steaming cup—loaded with extra amounts of cheap powdered creamer—she pulled her chair up to the window and resumed watching the storm.

A rumble of thunder echoed quietly in the distance. Maybe there would be a lightning storm, she mused. Her mild excitement at the prospect soon faded, replaced by a faint sense of familiar melancholy.

Rain and thunder always reminded her of Itachi and their time together in that isolated cabin.

Almost a year and a half had passed since he and Sasuke disappeared into the fog one early morning to track down Uchiha Madara.

Sakura knew that the brothers sent messages to the Hokage periodically; brief updates on their progress carried by Sasuke's hawk summons. But there was never a letter for her, not even any mention of her for Naruto to pass along. Something like that would be tantamount to talking about their relationship with a third party, and Itachi just wasn't that kind of person. She was just glad to know they were both alright. Though naturally she'd had moments of doubt in the past, moments where she couldn't help but wonder if so much time and distance had eroded what they had to nothing more than a pleasant memory. Maybe he was over her. But she had to have faith. Itachi wouldn't have promised to return to her if he hadn't meant it completely.

Aside from her teammates and Tsunade, no one else knew about them. Her other friends all thought she was missing out on one of the best parts of life and couldn't understand why she didn't date. Ino was always trying to hook her up, especially since her nineteenth birthday a few months ago. She was wasting her youth, her friend would say. She wouldn't stay pretty forever…did she _want_ to be a spinster?

But Sakura wasn't interested. Her heart was bound to another, and she couldn't pretend otherwise. The nearly physical ache of missing him had faded over time, but she was left with a loneliness that never quite seemed to go away. A subtle, hollow feeling, as if a part of her was missing. At important events in her life she would feel his absence most strongly. Two birthdays, passing the jounin exams with ease, receiving her new position of respect and influence…they had all been just a little less joyful than they could have been, because he wasn't there to share it with her.

Nine weeks was all they had together, such a short time when she looked back, and much of that time was spent apart. But those nine weeks had been some of the most wonderful in her life. They had shared and experienced so much together, grown together, and even after so long she could not forget how special that time was, or how much he meant to her. She would wait for him as promised, until he came back to her or she received confirmation of his death.

Sakura was running out of clever excuses to refuse the obnoxious but well-meaning interference of her friends, but she couldn't tell anyone about her involvement with Itachi. The cover story needed to remain airtight.

In Itachi's absence, a briefing was given to the jounin and ANBU explaining the retraction of his missing-nin status and his full pardon. A general announcement had been disbursed among the civilian population as well. Konoha was prepared for his return, and Uchiha Itachi would receive a welcome he was not expecting. Sakura had a feeling he would not be entirely pleased about it.

The faint echo of footsteps in the hallway right outside drew her back to the present. She looked toward the door as one of her lab assistants came in.

Sakura and Shiho had met when they worked together on a high-level encryption assignment with Shikamaru—the morning of the Akatsuki attack on Konoha. Before everything went to hell that day, Sakura had been impressed with how smart and diligent the mousy girl was, and even though she wasn't exactly a scientist, Sakura didn't hesitate to ask for her help when Naruto gave her the task of finding this antidote.

"I thought you might be in here," Shiho said. "I was passing by Reception and a page was asking for you. He didn't have clearance to enter this sector. I told him I would let you know myself."

"What's up?" Sakura rose and set her coffee on the counter.

Shiho pushed her bottle thick glasses up her nose. "The Hokage wants to see you."

He probably wanted to know how the test results were coming. He was still as impatient as ever. Whatever the reason, she had nothing else to do for the next two and a half hours and a distraction was welcome. "Keep an eye on things here until I get back?"

"Sure," Shiho said, and pulled a Sudoku book out of her lab coat before taking Sakura's vacated seat.

"Thanks," Sakura called on her way out.

Seven years ago, when she became a genin and was assigned to Team Seven, she never would have believed that one day she would be at the beck and call of Uzumaki Naruto. But both of them were very different people than they were back then—for the most part. The mantle of responsibility had given a new maturity and wisdom to her once tactless and boisterous teammate, and the altered nature of their relationship had only brought them closer. Though she still saw the need to smack him occasionally.

When she reached the Hokage tower and made her way up to the office she was mildly surprised to find the thick double doors closed and two ANBU guards stationed outside, silent and watchful. Sakura had been wrong; this was obviously not about the test results. Had something bad happened? Her stomach curled anxiously. There hadn't been a report from the Uchiha brothers in a couple months, what if….

One of the guards nodded curtly and let her in, closing the door behind her.

Naruto sat at his desk, and Kakashi stood off to the side with his hands in his pockets. Tsunade was there as well, seated on a chair to Naruto's right, arms and legs crossed comfortably. But Sakura hardly saw them, for there were _five_ heads that turned at her entry.

Standing before the Hokage's desk were Itachi and Sasuke.

Surprise showed clearly on her face, as well as every other emotion she felt in that moment. Naruto hadn't told her…she hadn't known they were coming back. Had they not sent any notice, or had Naruto purposely kept it from her?

He confirmed it a moment later. "Sakura-chan," he greeted cheerfully, grinning in a self-satisfied way. "Surprise."

"You're back!" she exclaimed, too happy and excited to care if she sounded lame or redundant. "You did it, then?"

The brothers both nodded.

The knot of suppressed anxiety Itachi had been carrying inside for days melted away at the sight of her. _Sakura_. Memory was a fickle thing that only seemed to sharpen the things one didn't want to recall, and faded out the rest. He had forgotten how her presence lit up the room, how her eyes were so sharp and radiant, how her smile could momentarily make him forget to breathe. He hadn't known what to expect upon seeing her, and had pessimistically imagined the worst. He knew he hadn't done enough to keep her, had left too much unsaid. She was the best thing to ever happen to him and he had walked away from her to follow after Madara; he had no choice but to see itthrough to the end. She'd said she understood, but he knew the heart and mind didn't always cooperate. And then he'd sent no communication, given her no reassurances, no hope for her to cling to. The world changes and people often change with it despite their intentions, and she had been so young…he'd been reluctant to hold out hope that she would still be his.

Yet here she was, with her heart on her sleeve, smiling at him in a way that sent a flooding warmth through his chest and filled it so full he thought he might burst.

Sakura tore her eyes away from Itachi long enough to notice a medium-sized wicker basket with a broken seal on the desk. She knew what was in it without having to ask. They had succeeded in their quest. Uchiha Madara was dead, and Konoha was safe from his madness. The meeting had been going on a while, it seemed, and she had missed hearing the details of their mission and how they had succeeded in taking Madara down. It was frustrating, but she would have to find out on her own later.

She drank in the sight of them both. Their cloaks were worn and travel stained, but they looked rested and well. Sasuke seemed a little taller, almost the height of his brother. And there was another difference, more noticeable to those who knew him well. The dark, half-mad aura and the internal chaos he'd carried for so long were gone. There was a serenity about him; a stillness within, like he was finally at peace with himself and the world. The journey with his brother to reconcile the past had clearly done a great deal for him.

Itachi looked the same as when he'd left—only more handsome. Achingly handsome. His reaction to seeing her again after a well over a year was frustratingly composed, though Sakura hadn't really expected otherwise. But the intensity of his gaze made her heart flutter; his dark eyes were filled with longing and anticipation, like a man in the desert who had just spotted an oasis. In that moment she felt silly for her doubts, because it was clear he was no more over her than she was over him.

Sakura wanted so badly to run to his arms, but everyone was watching and it didn't seem quite appropriate. They were still discussing official business, and so she held herself back. Barely.

"I guess we should move on to what's happened while you were gone and how things are going to be now that you're back," Naruto said. His political manner was as laid back and informal as his personal manner, though somehow it was no less effective than if he had been stern and intimidating. Everyone said his father had been the same way.

"You already know," he continued, speaking to Itachi, "that not long after you left, your official pardon was passed and you were reinstated as a Konoha shinobi. By now all the villages know about it."

"What did you have to tell them?" Itachi asked expectantly.

"That it was Madara who massacred the Uchiha clan, and that you were forced to help him because you were already under secret orders to gain his trust and infiltrate Akatsuki. That you've been under orders from Konoha all this time, and were feeding us intel on the organization." Naruto smiled, that foxlike grin he got whenever he'd pulled off something sly. "The other Kages were kind of pissed that we didn't tell them we had a man on the inside, but there are no records and there's enough truth in the story that no one's questioned it."

Sakura watched Itachi carefully. Of course he'd known there would have to be some careful spinning of the truth in order to pull off such a drastic move as pardoning one of the most notorious missing-nin in the world, without fully exposing the darkness of Konoha's past. The village now thought of him as some kind of tragic hero, which he was in a way, but the cover story greatly exaggerated it. As she'd suspected, Itachi didn't look very happy that the blame and responsibility had been lifted from him entirely.

Naruto noticed as well. "It's the only way. If the real truth were exposed, for one thing, the people would start to question their faith in Konoha's government. On top of that, the Uchiha name would be permanently ruined by their attempt at rebellion and political assassination. Konoha needs the Uchiha clan, and it's better for everyone to have a fresh start."

Itachi simply nodded, and Naruto took that as both acknowledgement and acceptance. He looked to Sasuke next, and his expression became grim.

"It's a little more difficult in your case, Sasuke." It wasn't easy for him to be the objective and stern leader in this situation, but he was resigned to do the right thing. "What Itachi did was a long time ago, and it only involved Konoha. None of the other villages ever really cared in the first place, so it's easier for them to accept his pardon. But _you_ pissed off a lot of important people and created a diplomatic nightmare. The Raikage is a stubborn old bastard and he still wants your head no matter how often I've tried to reason with him, and the Daimyo of Iron country is backing him because of the mess you made in his territory. Konoha couldn't even cover for you because you attacked the other Kages and you would never have done that if you were working with us."

Sasuke listened impassively, though he wasn't apathetic anymore. He'd reconciled the past; he had a brother again; he had friends waiting for him. He wanted to live. But he knew he couldn't escape the consequences of his choices forever. Before he ever walked back through Konoha's gates today, he was resolved to accept whatever fate awaited him.

Naruto was about to continue, but sounds at the door made him pause. It was opened by the guards outside, and they all turned.

Karin entered cautiously, not quite sure why she'd been summoned. She froze when she saw Sasuke, her expression caught somewhere between happiness and fear. Sasuke's eyes went wide, his mouth falling slack.

Karin was carrying a very small child in her arms…an adorable boy with a shock of unruly black hair and unmistakable Uchiha features.

The room went absolutely still. For a long minute Sasuke just stared at the tiny person clinging to his mother, uncertain of the new strangers. Finally he took a slow, tentative step forward, then another. His eyes never left boy's face.

"I didn't know…" he said, nearly a whisper. The boy hid half his face in Karin's hair at the sudden attention, but his wide eyes were bold and curious. Sasuke finally looked at Karin, confused, but not yet angry. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried to at first, but you never wanted to talk about…us." She tried not to sound resentful. The past was in the past, and the only way this would work was if _everyone_ moved on. "Then everything happened with Madara and your brother, and you were leaving…."

"I wouldn't have gone if I knew you were…pregnant," he argued mutedly, though it was impossible to keep the conversation between the two of them no matter how he lowered his voice.

"That's exactly why I didn't tell you." It hadn't been easy, and there were times in the beginning when she'd questioned her decision to keep the baby, to stay in Konoha and be a part of its life once it was born. She was young; she wasn't ready; Sasuke was absent; she was dependent on Konoha for support, and they only gave it because her child was an Uchiha. It had been rough for a while. But now she was content, and could no longer imagine having chosen differently.

"I should have taken responsibility," he maintained, growing more bewildered by the moment. "I should have been here."

"You're here now," Karin said, quietly firm. She wasn't the same person she'd been two years ago. Raising a child tended to make people grow up, fast. Especially when they did it alone. She still cared for Sasuke, loved him even, but he was no longer the center of her universe. Her child was the most important thing in the world now, and all that mattered was his safety and happiness.

She gave Sasuke a small smile. "Do you want to hold him?"

Sasuke focused on the boy again, who was still staring at him with the kind of unabashed interest only babies can have. He swallowed thickly, his mouth going strangely dry. Karin detached the child from herself and turned him, holding him out for Sasuke to take.

He was suddenly terrified of this little creature. Would he drop it? Break it? Ruin it somehow? He had no idea how to hold a baby. But it wasn't a _baby_-baby, it was more like a…toddler? Where was he supposed to put his hands?

Karin chuckled softly, and he had a feeling it was at his expense. But she helped him settle the boy into the curve of his arm, with a supporting hand under his small chubby legs. The seemingly fragile little person was warm and solid and surprisingly heavy, and Sasuke relaxed slightly as he realized he was probably not going to break him.

Sasuke and the boy simply stared at each other. The little face pulled together in an appraising frown as he tried to figure the new person out, signs of an already developing intellect behind his brown-black eyes. He seemed perfectly content to be where he was and didn't squirm or fuss, as if he somehow sensed that this stranger was just as connected to him as his mother was.

"His name is Koichi," Karin said, smiling a little. "He was born last July," she added, as if providing evidence.

There had never been a second of doubt in his mind—not with those eyes and a face that could once have been his own. "Koichi," he murmured softly, and the name resonated through him like a song. _'Happiness'_, it meant. Sasuke stared at the child in his arms—_his son_—and suddenly understood why Karin did it, why she kept her pregnancy a secret and let him leave without knowing when he would return, if ever. He wasn't fit to be a parent back then, not even close, and if he had stayed he would probably never have reached a place where he was capable of being a good father.

Sasuke tore his eyes away from the boy and looked at Karin for a long time, seeing her in a new light. The mother of his child. Someone who understood him better than most, and had cared enough to let him go. He had taken her for granted, he knew. He would make up for it if he could.

Karin's eyes were bright with tears, because Sasuke was smiling. A true, genuine smile which she had never seen, one he probably hadn't shown since long before meeting her. Koichi grinned back, proudly displaying his pink gums and a few baby teeth, and with a happy gurgle he suddenly tried to put his fingers in Sasuke's mouth. That was when Sasuke shocked them all.

He laughed.

The silent tension in the room broke as everyone laughed as well, surprised and delighted by the scene before them and the changes in their friend. Watching Sasuke and Karin, it was clear that they cared for each other. Maybe someday what they had would grow into love, and they would be happy as a family.

Sakura had been wondering when Naruto would enlighten Sasuke about the fact that he'd been a father for about a year. She knew exactly why he'd chosen this moment. He was cleverer than most people believed.

"After this long, it's clear that Cloud and Iron aren't going to back down, Sasuke," Naruto continued at last, more quietly than before. "Konoha can't afford to hand you over to them and jeopardize the Uchiha bloodline, but at the same time we're not going to start a war over you. There's only one option that might work for everyone."

Sasuke sobered, his miraculous smile fading as he turned to regard the Hokage. "What is it?"

"To have your chakra sealed, for a minimum of five years. You would also have to undergo periodic psychological evaluations. After the determined time, the council would decide whether or not to unseal your chakra and reinstate you as a genin—which is what you were when you left." Naruto sucked in a deep breath. "If you don't agree to it, then the only other options are imprisonment for at least twice that long, or being handed over to Cloud, where they'll probably execute you—after we've blinded you, of course. So they can't get the Sharingan."

Sasuke looked again at Koichi. His son. The boy looked back at him, trusting and curious and beautiful. The decision was already made. It was amazing how instantly and completely your entire perspective could shift when faced with a life-altering circumstance. He no longer simply wanted to live. He _had_ to live. No matter what he was forced to endure, he had to be there for this precious child—his 'happiness.' He had to watch him grow up, and teach him to be the kind of man Sasuke had wanted to be, before hatred and grief had eaten away at his soul. The kind of man he hoped he could be from now on.

"Do it," he said quietly, looking at Naruto again. "Seal my chakra."

Naruto nodded, and gave his friend an understanding smile. He then gave the floor to Tsunade, who was more knowledgeable about the formalities of the agreement and the details of the procedure, which she would perform herself. She was soon interrupted by the door opening a third time.

A masked guard poked her head in and announced that there was someone outside with an urgent message for Sakura. Frowning curiously, Sakura went to the door and stepped out into the hallway. It was Shiho, looking highly wound up.

"What is it?" Sakura wanted to know. "Did something happen with the test?"

"No. Well, yes, kind of." She took a breath. "Another poison victim has just been brought back. This one is still alive."

Sakura's eyes widened, suddenly feeling the same sense of urgency as her assistant. "We can test the antidote on them."

"But it's not ready, is it?"

"Ready enough. If it fails we can possibly still save the victim and run further tests based on their bloodwork. Go begin preparations. I'm right behind you."

Shiho took off at a jog, and Sakura went back into the office and quickly informed Naruto of the situation. He urged her to hurry, and Tsunade said she would come to assist when she was finished here. Sasuke barely spared a glance at her departure. He was still completely fixated on the little boy in his arms.

Before heading out the door she cast a rueful look at Itachi. She wished she could stay and talk to him, wished they could reunite properly. But it would have to wait. She held his gaze and felt a thrill at the silent promise that passed between them. He would find her later.

Itachi intentionally looked down at the floor as Sakura left. It took discipline; he was surprised by the sharp intensity of his desire to watch her. As the doors shut behind her, it seemed to him that the colors in the room faded, the air cooled and resettled. He had so much to say to her, to show her, but right now he needed to focus for just a little longer on the matters at hand. He breathed carefully to hide a smile, amused at the power of happiness.

"So," Naruto said, picking up where they left off. "About the sealing…"

* * *

The next few hours were maddening for Sakura. Preparing the antidote, working to keep the suffering patient alive in the meantime, administering the untried formula, then waiting with bated breath and crossed fingers that it would work. The waiting was the worst, for it allowed her mind to wander and become distracted.

When would Sasuke's chakra be sealed? How would he adapt to living as a civilian for the next five years? To suddenly being a father? What did Itachi think of all this? What was he doing right this minute?

Tsunade arrived after a while, and after Sakura apprised her of the situation they talked about the Uchiha brothers while waiting.

"I think you should perform a full exam on Itachi when you can," her shishou said, "to make sure he's not ill again before he returns to service."

Sakura had worried about that as well; that Itachi's condition would return, that his eyesight would begin to fail again. "I planned to."

Tsunade smirked knowingly. "Of course." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I'd like you to be present at Sasuke's first psych evaluation as well. You know him better than anyone else who will be there."

Sakura was skeptical; knowing Sasuke well was a relative term these days. "That hardly qualifies anymore, don't you think? Itachi would be a better choice."

"He's not medically qualified," she countered. "Though I suppose an exception could be made in this circumstance. I'd still like you to attend."

"Alright," she agreed. She leaned against the wall and looked at her mentor. "Do you really think Sasuke is…I don't know. Faking compliance?"

"Strangely, No. I believe he's genuine. I think the Uchiha Sasuke who returned to Konoha today is not the same one who left. What do you think?"

Sakura agreed. "He's a father now," she said, smiling faintly at the idea. "The idea of a peaceful life is probably very appealing. Even if he has to live it as a civilian."

Tsunade frowned thoughtfully, nodding. "Even if he is just biding his time, five years is a long time. And with nothing to hate, hatred is hard to hold on to."

Their conversation ended when one of the attending medics opened the door of the trauma room and beckoned them inside. The patient was awake: he was going to live. The antidote was mostly a success, although it was still too slow. If the poison's spread had been more advanced, or had the patient been a little weaker, he would have died. The good news was they now had his antibodies to study in order to create a more effective result.

Sakura wrapped up her work at the hospital as fast as she possibly could without slacking, though the temptation to just drop everything and run out the door was strong. On her way out, she was filled again with the same excited thrill. Was Itachi as eager to see her as she was to see him? What would happen when they met again, and had some private time? Maybe he was waiting for her outside?

He wasn't, and some of her excitement faded. He was probably still finishing some finalizing paperwork at the Hokage tower, and so rather than wait around, she headed over there to try and find him.

Naruto was rushing through the last of the day's work when she got there, muttering something about Hinata making him dinner tonight and he didn't want to be late. It had taken him weeks to muster the clarity and courage to talk to her after what she did during the attack. It had taken even longer for him to make a move, but he finally had about a year ago and now they were living together.

Itachi obviously wasn't there, and Naruto explained that he and Sasuke had finished their processing a while ago and had both left. He had no idea where they were.

Out of ideas, and not wanting to wander around town like a desperate fool, Sakura decided to go home. The rain had finally stopped and an overcast dusk was falling, the sky turning a curious amber color. By the time she reached her front door she was feeling a little dejected. She didn't know what to expect after so long and she didn't want to start speculating, so she was determined to just not think about it. Much.

She went inside, dropped her lab coat over the back of the couch, and went straight into the kitchen to put the tea on. She filled the kettle and clicked on the stove, and was pulling a cup out of the cupboard when she realized she wasn't alone.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she quickly set the cup on the counter before she dropped it. Then in afterthought, grinning madly, she reached up and pulled a second cup down and set it next to hers. And then she slowly turned around.

She didn't know how he knew where she lived or how he'd gotten in, if he followed her or if he'd been waiting here all along. At the moment she didn't care. He was _here_, smiling just a little in his tentative way. He took a half step toward her, dark eyes filled with longing. She rushed the last few steps to him, laughing breathlessly when he caught her in his arms tightly enough to lift her off the floor. Even when her feet touched down again she didn't let go, and neither did he. When their embrace finally relaxed, it was only so they could look into each other's eyes.

"Naruto didn't tell me you were on your way back," she breathed, her hands slipping from around his neck to rest against his chest.

"I'm glad he didn't. I enjoyed your surprise." He brushed his fingers over her cheek. "You're more beautiful than I remember."

The smooth, rich sound of his voice filled her with warmth, and his unexpected openness surprised her. "So are you," she laughed softly. "And you're more expressive than I remember."

"I have no reason to hide anymore," he explained simply. "I learned to be myself again."

Sakura grinned, beyond happy. "What will you do now?" she asked him. "You're being reinstated?"

He nodded. "I've been asked to take over as head of foreign intelligence. Apparently the last one was a supporter of Root."

Sakura was aware; the position had been vacant for months, and Morino Ibiki had been covering both national and foreign sectors. She had to wonder just how long Naruto had known of Itachi's imminent return, if he had kept the office open on purpose specifically for him. Itachi was inarguably the best spy Konoha had ever seen, and had intimate knowledge of the operations of many criminal circles.

"But that's ANBU," she pointed out skeptically. "I thought you didn't want to be part of that again."

"It's mostly a desk job. If I was ever needed on a mission it would only be recon."

"I suppose you are just a little too infamous to be an undercover agent again," she mused. "But I'm surprised the Hokage would want one of his best sitting behind a desk."

"I would also oversee the testing of applicants and training new recruits."

Ah. That made more sense. "And this is something you want to do?" she asked. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel bound by duty to accept something he didn't want again.

"I've already accepted." His expression turned thoughtful. "Naruto…he believes in peace. Not through control by fear or victory in war, but in justice without bloodshed. I want to see if he can do it."

"He will," she assured confidently. "Because of him, our world is slowly changing."

His hand rose again, and he carefully removed the pencil that had held her hair up most of the day. He watched her long locks fall in soft waves around her shoulders and across her back with an intensity that told her he _very_ much liked the new look, and it was only a moment before his fingers were smoothing through the tousled strands. Sakura smiled. She'd started growing it because she knew he adored her hair, but also because he was right. The cropped hair had made a statement that she no longer needed to prove. She felt the long hair suited her now, inside and out.

But she wasn't the only one who looked different. She could see now what his cloak had hidden before: his hair was unbound, and only fell just past his collarbones. "You cut yours," she observed softly, reaching up to finger the much shorter ends.

"I had to," he explained. "It was…damaged, in the fight with Madara."

The images the statement conjured were a strange mixture of danger and hilarity. She probably didn't want to know exactly _how_ it happened, as she might feel useless worry after the fact, or worse, she might laugh. His long hair had been so beautiful, but she was starting to think he was even more devastatingly handsome this way.

"You were gone for so long…how far did you have to go?"

"We tracked him far to the west," he said. "To a land so different from ours it's like another world. There are no shinobi there, and we believe he meant to install himself as a force of power. It took weeks to get back to Fire country."

"Will you tell me all about it later?" She was eager to know what had happened, but long conversations were not at the top of her list of things she wanted to do with him at the moment.

He gave a faint nod, and quiet fell as they gazed at each other. Sakura leaned just a little closer and felt the space between them charge with anticipation. Itachi's hands were still in her hair, and they threaded further through the locks as he gently tilted her head upward. She held her breath, her eyes fluttering half closed as she waited for the moment she'd been longing for—when their lips would meet again after all this time.

The air suddenly filled with an aggravating, high-pitched whine that refused to go away no matter how hard she cursed the universe and everything in it just then. The spell was broken, and Sakura quickly went to remove the teakettle from the stove before their sensitive hearing drove them both mad.

"Honey?" she asked over her shoulder, recalling his taste for all things sweet. She tried not to sound too frustrated.

"Please."

She gleaned nothing from his tone, but of course that wasn't unusual. Sakura prepared the cups and set them on the opposite counter to cool. He'd followed her into the kitchen, and she leaned one hip against the cabinet and faced him. Neither of them seemed to know where to pick up after such an awkward interruption. The air between them wasn't really uncomfortable, just…stuck.

Surprisingly, Itachi was the one to break the silence.

"Sasuke challenged Naruto to a rematch of the fight they had before we left on our mission," he said. "He insisted he was previously weakened by chakra loss after fighting Madara and therefore it wasn't a true draw. Naruto said he'd already known that and had gone easy on him because of it."

Sakura could picture the conversation exactly, and rolled her eyes. "I am completely unsurprised," she said dryly. "That's how it always is with them. When is it?"

"Noon tomorrow. Sasuke is to have his chakra sealed immediately afterward."

Of course they would want to get one last brawl in before that happened. "Well, at least I don't have to get up early," she quipped.

Then she thought about what her words might imply, and blushed. She didn't know what was wrong with her. They'd had a very comfortable intimacy before he left, and he'd been seconds away from kissing her when the damn kettle went off. But it had been a long time since they had seen each other and where they stood hadn't been clearly reestablished. She wasn't sure how bold she should be.

Itachi didn't react one way or the other, and for once she was grateful for his unrivaled ability to conceal what he was thinking. They fell silent for a minute, sipping their tea while casting brief glances at each other. Every time their eyes met Sakura hoped something might happen, thought she might throw caution to the wind, grab him by the shirtfront and kiss him senseless. She couldn't quite do it.

Itachi suddenly smirked at some inner thought.

"What?"

"Sasuke is a father," he said quietly, staring into his tea with slight bemusement.

"And you're an uncle," she pointed out.

His smirk widened into a faint smile. It was certainly something he never expected to be. There were many elements to his life these days that he never expected, and surprisingly, most of them were welcome. "Karin…is she a good mother?" he wanted to know.

"She is, actually." Sakura replied. "She only does what's best for Koichi." Motherhood had softened many of Karin's hard edges, though sometimes she was still rather standoffish. Sakura got along with her well enough, though it would be a stretch to say they were good friends. "He's a wonderful baby," she added. "Ridiculously smart." Sakura wasn't a fan of small children, but she adored this particular one. She looked up at him curiously. "How is he taking it?"

"I'm sure you could tell. He's understandably overwhelmed…but happy. He will adjust to the rest." He studied her expression, and quietly asked, "Have you forgiven him?"

That was a good question, one she'd been thinking a lot about today. "We'll see how he treats me from now on," she said. "But he doesn't seem to be the same person anymore. I hope we can finally be friends."

But Sasuke wasn't what she wanted to talk about. Itachi's hand rested on the countertop, and she reached out to touch his forearm. "Are _you_ happy?" she asked.

He gazed at her with a rare open expression, and smiled in that shy way she adored. "I am now."

Every part of her grew warm and fluttery, but there was something there in his eyes that made her pause. Her smile faded slightly. "…But?"

Itachi shook his head faintly. "No but," he assured quietly. However, he couldn't deny the lingering trace of uncertainty he felt. She was clearly happy to see him, had welcomed him with joy and the sweet affection he had missed while away. But as much as he'd hoped for it, he hadn't actually expected her to still be waiting for him. He needed to know exactly what she wanted from him before he made a fool of himself. "I have been gone a long time. I would understand if…."

Sakura just stared at him. It was the silliest thing he'd ever said to her. "Are you kidding?" she laughed incredulously. "You worried I'd moved on?" How silly of them both, to hesitate with each other over imagined fears. She set her cup down and moved forward, closing the distance between them. Her hands rose to his face. "I've missed you so much, Itachi," she said softly, holding his gaze. "I thought of you every day, wishing you were here with me. I've been waiting for this moment ever since you left." He smiled, and she matched it with her own. "Now kiss me already."

He did, softly at first, and then with the passion of nearly two years' longing. It was everything she'd hoped for and more. Their lips met again and again and again, making up for all the time lost between them. They parted breathless, and he held her to him and buried his face in her hair.

"Sakura…" he murmured, so faintly it was little more than a whisper just above her ear. "I love you."

He'd barely spoken, yet she heard it with absolute clarity. For a moment she was stunned. Even if part of her had known, she hadn't expected to ever hear him say it. It was just too emotional…but he had. There were no words to describe her overwhelming happiness. She drew back to look at him. "I love you too," she told him, smiling, eyes glistening. "I wanted to tell you before you left, but I just didn't know…."

Itachi had realized the depth of his feelings before he left as well, only he didn't know how to say it, and because of that, she didn't know if she should. But a year and a half without her smile, her warmth, her wit, and even her quick temper had been more than enough time for him to conclude that Haruno Sakura was the only woman he would ever love and he wanted her by his side for the rest of his life. He had sworn to himself that if he was able to return home he would tell her. He would give all of himself to her, hold nothing back.

Sakura thought he might kiss her again, but he only looked at her, and the unguarded feelings she saw in his eyes were sweeter than any kiss.

"The darkness of the past is gone," he said, still so quiet. It was still difficult for him, to be open with others, but with her it was easiest. "For the first time in my life, I can look forward to the future."

"What sort of future did you have in mind?" she asked, playfully tugging on his collar.

Itachi smirked slyly, the way he did when he used to tease her. "I only have one because of you," he returned smoothly, sliding his hands over her waist. "It's only right that you spend it with me."

Sakura was shocked again, but she was quickly growing to love this new side of him. _This_ was the real Itachi, who had slowly learned to strip away the layers of his mask, and to heal those invisible scars. This was the man she loved with all her heart.

She rose up on her toes and kissed him. It quickly deepened and grew more passionate, and soon she was pulling him by the shoulders and guiding him to the stairs.

He went along with her eagerly, and parted from her lips only long enough to ask, "Is that a yes, then?"

"It's definitely a yes," she murmured onto his mouth, before initiating another heated kiss. They reached the stairs, and he suddenly grasped her thighs and lifted her up. Her legs locked around his waist and she laughed as he climbed the steps two at a time.

Their tea, and the rest of the world, was forgotten until morning.

* * *

The End


End file.
